Researcher vacatures in Rotterdam

[POSTDOC] Marine Microbiology & Symbiosis

FEMS

Posted on Nov 4, 2025

The Distel Laboratory at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center (Nahant, Massachusetts, USA) seeks a postdoctoral researcher to study the ecology, evolution, and cell biology of symbioses between wood-eating shipworms (family Teredinidae) and their intracellular bacterial endosymbionts.

Shipworms provide a powerful model for exploring symbiont acquisition and intracellular infection, as both hosts and symbionts can be cultured under controlled laboratory conditions. Their bacterial partners produce diverse carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) that degrade lignocellulose, and encode antimicrobial compounds that may structure and defend the symbiosis. The successful candidate will investigate host-symbiont interactions using microscopy, molecular genetics, and metagenomic approaches.

Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in microbiology, molecular biology, marine biology, or related disciplines and demonstrate experience in microbial genomics, microscopy, or symbiosis research.

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