Postdoctoral scientist, gut microbiome, host genetics and emergent phenotypes
Deadline 12/12/2025
Centre / Institution: Center for Genomic Regulation
The Institute
The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) is an international biomedical research institute of excellence, based in Barcelona, Spain, with more than 400 scientists from 44 countries. The CRG is composed by an interdisciplinary, motivated and creative scientific team which is supported both by a flexible and efficient administration and by high-end and innovative technologies.
We are seeking a postdoctoral scientist deeply interested in investigating how host and gut microbiome interact, at the molecular and at the organismal levels. Our lab is continuously generating large-scale, state-of-the-art gut metagenomics data for thousands of genetically heterogeneous "HS" laboratory rats whose genetic makeup, gut metabolome and behaviour have been characterised by collaborators. We are looking for a postdoctoral scientist to exploit these data in creative and rigorous ways. A first step will be to construct a catalogue of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) for the HS rat population, from very deep shotgun and long read sequencing data.
The ideal candidate will have proven experience constructing a MAG catalogue and analysing microbiome deep shotgun data to profile the microbiome at the taxonomic and functional levels in hundreds/thousands of individuals. They will have a good understanding of the gut microbiome field and will be able to identify novel and/or important questions to address with our HS rat data. They will be keen to interact with other team members, including PhD students and bioinformaticians working on the gut microbiome and host genetics.
About the team
The Social and Host-Microbiome Systems lab aims to expand our understanding of the genetic basis of complex traits to encompass genes found in the environment: genes of social partners and genes of the gut microbiota.
Most relevant publication for this project
Novel insights into the genetic architecture and mechanisms of host/microbiome interactions from a multi-cohort analysis of outbred laboratory rats. Tonnele, Chen et al. bioRxiv (2025) (accepted for publication in Nature Communications). This study was based on 16S data but we now use only deep shotgun sequencing data to profile the microbiome.
Our team is multidisciplinary, with expertise in quantitative/statistical genetics (e.g. heritability, GWAS, indirect/social genetic effects) and metagenomics (microbiome profiling using deep shotgun sequencing data, detecting horizontal transmission). We are mostly computational but have a small lab component and work in close collaboration with the CRG core units for metagenome sequencing. We have a long-standing collaboration with the NIDA Center of Excellence for Genetics, Genomics, and Epigenetics of Substance Use Disorders in Outbred Rats (https://ratgenes.org/).
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