There is an exciting Postdoctoral position in the lab of Javier Vargas in the Department of Optics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Madrid, Spain to work in the project: “Pushing the computational limits of cryo-EM to maximize its biomedical impact” supported by Proyectos I+D+I 2019 Modalidad Retos, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

We seek a highly motivated, self-driven and creative thinker who is prepared to take risks in defining and addressing important scientific problems, and who is enthusiast about image processing, machine learning and developing computational approaches in their work.

Our work focusses on developing new image processing methods in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to obtain high-resolution 3D reconstructions of macromolecules as proteins or virus. Cryo-EM is a structural biology technique that uses the electron microscope to reconstruct biomolecular assemblies. This technique is living a revolution in its capacity to obtain atomic-resolution 3D reconstructions of macromolecules. However, the extraordinary potential of cryo-EM is presently limited by important factors: several steps in the pipeline can only be performed by highly experienced researchers, biological complexes are typically conformationally heterogeneous, and there are not reliable validation methods to evaluate the obtained structures. Developing algorithms that remove these bottlenecks is critical for cryo-EM to unfold its tremendous potential as a research tool. Our work aims to develop these methods to transform cryo-EM into a reliable, high-throughput and high-resolution technique. We are developers of Cryomethods plugin [1] of Scipion package [2] and actively collaborate with strong research groups in Spain [3], Canada [4], United States [5-6] and Mexico [7]. A list of recent publications can be seen from [8].

Requirements:

- PhD in computer science, physics or computational biology, or a related field of science.

- Previous experience in image processing and data science.

- Strong knowledge in Python programming, especially using Numpy, Matplotlib and Pandas.

- Experience working in Linux environments.

- Previous experience in machine learning/deep learning.

- Good written and oral communication skills in English.

Previous experience developing image processing methods in single particle cryo-EM or cryo-ET and knowledge of Spanish language is a plus.

Applicants should submit a CV, a motivation letter outlining research experiences and interests and two reference letters to Javier Vargas at jvargas@ucm.es   

[1] https://github.com/mcgill-femr/scipion-em-cryomethods

[2] http://scipion.i2pc.es/

[3] http://i2pc.es/about-i2pc/

[4] https://www.huy-bui.lab.mcgill.ca/

[5] https://www.mclellanlab.org/lab-members

[6] https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/dais-uw

[7] http://personal.cimat.mx:8181/~julio/

[8] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7519-6106