The Cooper Lab in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, within the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is seeking a post-doctoral associate. The incumbent will share their curiosity to understand how bacteriophage evolve to attack bacteria and how we can harness this for treatment. The incumbent's research will aim to understand how genetic variation in filamentous phages colonizing Pseudomonas aeruginosa influences infection and dispersal of these bacteria, with the ultimate goal of engineering phages to suppress or eliminate the bacteria. You will work in collaboration with the Bridges Lab (CMU) for microscopy, the Van Tyne Lab for specifics of phage therapy, the Secor Lab (Montana State) for expertise in filamentous phage genetics, and the Gloag Lab to evaluate dynamics in model burn wounds. Specifically, you will measure the rate of acquisition and spread of phages in structured bacterial populations, as well as the prevalence of superinfection. You will also genetically engineer the prophage to encode a toxin that undermines the host, measure the rate of cheater bacteriophage emergence and spread, and evaluate efficacy in a burn wound model.