Post-doctoral Associate

University of Maryland • College Park, MD

22h • $50,000 - $60,000 • Onsite

About The Position

This is a Postdoctoral Associate position in plant genome engineering at Dr. Yiping Qi lab, in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park. The Qi lab focuses on studying plant immunity and developing plant genome engineering and delivery tools for both basic and applied research. The postdoctoral associate will conduct mechanistic investigations of non-host immunity in plants. This role involves the independent and collaborative development, implementation, and analysis of scientific research in plant innate immunity, including the molecular characterization of candidate genes involved in non-host immunity in Arabidopsis and rice.

Requirements

• Less than two years since obtaining a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology/plant science or horticulture/agricultural science field.
• Standard molecular biology techniques and experience are required, such as DNA and RNA isolation, PCR, RT-PCR, quantitative PCR, RNA-seq, PCR amplicon sequencing, Southern blot, protein expression and purification in E.coli, protein extraction and analysis with Western blot, and gel electrophoresis of DNA, RNA, and protein.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate activities with faculty, other scientists, collaborators, staff, and students.
• Ability to multitask and work on several projects simultaneously.
• Good time management and organizational skills.

Nice To Haves

• At least one first-author or co-first research publication in Nature Plants, Molecular Plant, PNAS, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Plant Communications, Plant Cell, New Phytologist, Plant Physiology, and Plant Journal.
• Experience working in plant-microbe interactions.
• Experience working in plant responses to environmental stresses (cold or heat).
• Bioinformatic skills tailored for genomic analysis, protein annotation, and functional sequence comparison.
• Proficient molecular cloning skills are preferred, such as conventional cloning, TA cloning, Golden Gate cloning, Gateway cloning and Gibson assembly.
• Experience with vector construction software.
• Plant protoplast transformation.
• Plant tissue culture.
• Confocal imaging.
• Bioinformatics.
• Prior experience with protein molecular evolution.
• Demonstrated excellence by publishing multiple high-quality peer-reviewed papers.

Responsibilities

• Conduct mechanistic investigations of non-host immunity in plants.
• Independently and collaboratively develop, implement, and analyze scientific research in plant innate immunity.
• Perform molecular characterization of candidate genes involved in non-host immunity in Arabidopsis and rice.
• Develop hypotheses and conduct literature reviews.
• Collect pilot data.
• Write reports.
• Supervise undergraduate and graduate research students.
• Interact with collaborators in academic and private sectors.
• Oversee data collection procedures.
• Supervise experimental procedures.
• Review data for quality control.
• Supervise data entry and data analysis.
• Analyze research hypotheses using descriptive and multivariate statistics.
• Develop independent and collaborative presentations and high-quality publications.

Benefits

• For more information on Regular Faculty benefits, select this link.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree