Acknowledgement of Country

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation

The Opportunity

• Do you have a PhD in phage biology, microbiology, virology or pathogen biology or related field?
• Want to develop strategies to suppress or eliminate bacterial pathogens in aquaculture?
• Join CSIRO – Australia’s leading scientific research organisation!

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have less than three years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

In this position you will undertake research in the use of bacteriophage to suppress or eliminate pathogenic bacterial taxa in aquaculture. You will initially focus on isolating and characterising bacteriophage from aquatic environments using a combination of traditional microbiology/virology and next-generation sequencing approaches. Then you will examine phage resistance (using microbiology and genome analysis) in an aquaculture/food safety setting and develop strategies (through genome manipulation) to minimise this effect. The successful candidate will join an enthusiastic multidisciplinary research team with significant opportunity for career development and collaboration. 

Your duties will include:

• Develop strategies to isolate lytic bacteriophage from aquatic pathogens.
• Apply cutting edge technologies including proximal ligation-based sequencing and genome wide CRISPR knockouts to characterise host specificity and resistance mutations. 
• Employee genome editing approaches to modulation the genome of lytic bacteriophage for alternative specificity and lytic activity.
• Participate in international phage collaborations and communicate research finding through high quality publications and presentations. 

Location:  Hobart, Tasmania

Salary:  AU$89k - AU$98k plus up to 15.4% superannuation

Tenure:  Specified term of 3 years

Reference:  85562

To be considered you will need:

• A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD) in a relevant discipline area, such as phage biology, microbiology, virology or pathogen biology. Please note: To be eligible for this role you must have no more than 3 years (full time equivalent) of postdoctoral research experience.
• Demonstrated experience in microbiology including isolation, culture and characterisation of bacterial taxa from animals/humans or the environment.
• Knowledge or experience isolating, passaging and characterising bacteriophage.
• Experience developing and analysing next generation sequencing data including command line bioinformatics tools. 
• Excellent ‘hands-on’ technical skills in molecular biology including nucleic acid extraction, PCR, cloning, transfection and sequencing analysis. 

For full details about this role please view the Position Description

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian/New Zealand Citizens, Australian Permanent Residents or Australian temporary residents currently residing in Australia and be able to commence in the role by 31 January 2023.

Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Flexible Working Arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. 

Diversity and Inclusion

We are working hard to recruit people representing the diversity across our society, and ensure that all our people feel supported to do their best work and feel empowered to let their ideas flourish. 

About CSIRO

At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact. 

Join us and start creating tomorrow today!

How to Apply

Please apply on-line and provide a cover letter and CV that best demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the requirements of this role.

Applications Close

31 August 2022, 11:00pm AEDT