The Emiola lab at the National Institutes of Health (NIDCR) is interested in understanding how microbes interact in their ecosystem, contribute to diseases, and how they suppress the growth of competitors through the secretion of antimicrobials. We aim to use information on the microbiome to predict disease and outcomes, as well as developing ways to modulate it to improve human health. We are looking for a highly motivated individual to work on our antimicrobial discovery platform.

Historically, natural products derived from microbes have been a rich source of potent antimicrobial therapeutics. However, discovery from environmental sources has lagged and shifted to synthetic libraries in recent years, under the assumption that microbial-derived therapeutic discovery has been exhausted. On the other hand, genomics data and computational models have revealed that environmental microbiomes have far greater capacity to produce secondary metabolites than was initially observed from traditional screening techniques. This discrepancy is due to the inability to cultivate over 99% of environmental-dwelling microbes. This project explores new strategies aimed at characterizing unculturable microbes in high-throughput with the goal of identifying gene clusters involved in secondary metabolite production. The successful candidate will employ single-cell metagenomics, molecular biology, and bioinformatics approach to study microbial antagonistic interactions to discover new antimicrobials.

Requirements

• Ph.D. degree in microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, or a related field.

• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary environment.

• Proficiency working in Unix/Linux and HPC environments is desirable, but not essential.

Interested candidates should send a cover letter, CV, and contact details of 3 references to akintunde.emiola@jax.org and a.emiola01@gmail.com.