We also have two positions available in my lab to work on alkaloid production for the pharmaceutical poppy industry. If you are interested in medicinal agriculture, mutant screens and genome editing, please email me.

The Postdoctoral Fellowship is under the CSIRO SIEF STEM+ Fellowship program and is fully funded for approximately 2.5 years. I'm looking for someone with tissue culture experience particularly for this position. It will suit a person who is keen to work in a fast-paced environment that involves regular time spent at the corporate partner's sites. Applicants must have no more than 6 years experience post PhD - this is an early career fellowship. A formal advert will go up soon.

The PhD position will be on projects aligned with the postdoc above and comes with a full fees and stipend scholarship.

It's PhD recruitment time in Australia and here at AgriBio we have a lot of positions available with full scholarships for fees and stipends. Personally I have two projects in mind. The first is on transcriptional regulation during seed germination, following on  from the paper we just published. The second is an extension of our 2016 paper on shoot-root sRNA signalling and DNA methylome regulation. Email me if you are interested!!

Following below is a copy of our departmental advert. My colleagues are keen to recruit too.

The Department of Animal, Plant and Soil Sciences at La Trobe University has several PhD studentships (fees and stipend) available. These can be in any area of our research. Current interests include:
 

• Enhancing food production. This is an urgent global priority and we are focused on enhancing legume production, since this: (i) provides a healthy source of protein for humans, (ii) reduces our reliance on expensive nitrogen fertilizers (by forming a symbiosis with bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere), and (iii) reduces atmospheric and groundwater pollution.  Penny Smith’s lab are trying to identify genes that underpin the regulation of nitrogen fixation, as well as its relationship to other limiting nutrients like phosphorus.
• Cell walls enabled plants to colonise land and survive in a range of different environments. The wall is the key structural element in plants, controlling strength, rigidity and flexibility and, in turn, the texture of edible plant parts. The cell wall/cell surface is also a key sensor of the external environment. Tony Bacic and Monika Doblin are interested in understanding all aspects of wall biology with the aim of engineering walls “fit for purpose” biotechnologically!
• Ever wondered how a venus fly trap senses the touch of a fly and shuts its trap to capture it? Kim Johnson’s lab investigates the pathways downstream of a key cell surface sensor in plants that feels touch and responds to change plant growth. 
• Mucosal IgA plays a key role in resistance to nematode infection; the aim of this project is to determine the mechanism of action and the molecular targets. The research in Mike Stear’s lab will lead to better methods of diagnosis and disease control.
• James Hunt is an agronomist and crop physiologist specialising in water limited productivity of dry-land cropping and mixed farming systems. His research focuses on using combinations of management and genetics to increase productivity and profitability of grain based farming systems.
• Mat Lewsey’s lab studies plant genomics and epigenomics, applying systems biology approaches to understand internal signalling and environmental interactions. Most recently we have investigated how seeds wake-up, by activating their genome during germination, and how plant shoots send signals to control DNA methylation in roots.
• Kim Plummer’s lab investigates host specificity determinants of apple and pear scab fungi.  Students will us a systems biology approach to reveal factors involved in pathogenicity, host recognition and host resistance responses in apple and pear scab fungi (Venturiaspp). Assays will be conducted to elucidate functions of pathogen gene candidates that have been identified using: comparative genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and cytology, of a range of infection scenarios (resistant and susceptible interactions).
• Seed storage proteins are mobilised upon germination and used to fuel the early stages of seedling growth. Using a combination of genetics, cell biology and biochemistry, this in Tony Gendall’s lab project will investigate the role of proteases in germination.
• Caixan Tang’s interests include soil acidity and acidification, plant-soil interactions, rhizosphere chemistry and plant root exudation, subsoil constraints, and nutrient dynamics in natural and agro-ecosystems. 
• Travis Beddoe has extensive interests in biochemistry and crystallography, as well as livestock-pathogen interactions.
• Jim Whelan’s lab conducts extensive research in agricultural bioscience, including diverse aspects of plant energy metabolism such as the impact of energy and stresses on plant quality and yields and the effectiveness of phosphate fertilisers on specific plants and in current agricultural practices.
• Terry Spithill’s team aim to develop a novel liver fluke vaccine for cattle by use of hybrid recombinant antigens and protein adjuvants to improve immunogenicity. We will also test new antigens expressed in young flukes as vaccines and evaluate their ability to synergise with hybrid vaccines. The major outcome will be validation of a new vaccine for fluke control in cattle, leading to more sustainable beef and milk production in Australia and in developing countries.
• Warwick Grant’s lab primary research is on onchocerciasis (river blindness) a parasitic disease that is the world's second leading infectious cause of blindness.  The primary focus is in sub-Saharan Africa, where millions of people are at risk of contracting the disease. 

 
We are based at The Centre for AgriBioscience (AgriBio), Bundoora. This is a 25 year partnership between government, university and biotech companies in one environment to develop and drive innovative research in sustainable agriculture to meet the increasing demands for food with a growing world population.
 
La Trobe University is one of Australia’s research leaders and the largest provider of higher education to regional Victoria. We have been ranked in the world’s top 400 universities by all three major independent ranking agencies, and moved to #56 in the Times Higher Education Young Universities Rankings. 
 
La Trobe is recognised nationally and internationally
for high-quality teaching and research.
In the most recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment, La Trobe ranked equal best university in Australia for Biological Sciences and the best university in Australia for Agricultural and Veterinary Studies.
 
The deadline for domestic applicants is 31st October and for international applicants 30th September. To qualify for a full fees and stipend scholarship, applicants must have La Trobe University H1 honours or equivalent.
 
Studentships will be for an early 2018 start. Interested applicants can contact supervisors directly or enquire with the Graduate Research School (GRS).
 
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/animal-plant-and-soil-sciences
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/research/future/apply
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/researchers/grs

AgriBio is on a serious recruitment drive. We have a full Professorship in Plant Biology available in addition to all the postdoctoral and PhD positions I have advertised. The focus of the Professorship is on roots/microbiomes/soil interactions, so quite broad. Details are here if you are interested:

careers.pageuppeople.com/533/caw/en/job/551459/professor-of-plant-biology

Our facilities are excellent. The institute was purpose-built for research three years ago, housing more than 400 university and government scientists. We have particular strengths in genomics, NMR and crystallography, amongst others. And your new colleagues are charming!

​Feel free to contact me for informal discussion.

Here are some more details on the positions available in my lab. I'm looking for a postdoc and a PhD student.

The postdoc project focuses on systems-level regulation of gene expression by transcription factors during germination and early plant growth. A range of wet-bench and computational approaches will be applied, including plant molecular biology, high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq, RNA-seq) and bioinformatic analyses.

 The advert is follows. The post is for 1 year in the first instance, renewal subject to performance and funding.
 
http://careers.pageuppeople.com/533/caw/en/job/550932/postdoctoral-research-officer

Two possible PhD projects are available. The first is closely related to the postdoc project above and will be highly collaborative. To give more detail, germination is a critical step in plant development; no other developmental program will proceed if it is not completed successfully. It occurs after detection of the correct environmental stimuli and involves extensive transcriptional reprogramming, described in several excellent studies (for examples, see http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/163/1/205.long, http://www.pnas.org/content/108/23/9709.abstract, http://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2229-11-105). We now wish to investigate the role of transcription factors in this process by examining the genes they bind directly and their effects on transcription. The goal is to link binding events to observable plant traits.
 
The second project investigates communication between shoots and roots of plants that regulates DNA methylation. Communication occurs between cells and tissues within plant bodies to co-ordinate fundamental growth and developmental processes. Information about the internal and external environment is integrated so that plants may respond appropriately to complex conditions. Small RNAs are one agent that plants use to communicate internally. These move predominantly from shoots to roots, regulating the epigenomes of root cells and protecting their genomes against disruption by transposable elements (see http://science.sciencemag.org/content/328/5980/872 and http://www.pnas.org/content/113/6/E801.abstract). We now wish to investigate the interactions between the environment and mobile DNA methylation.
 
Both PhD projects will incorporate aspects of high-throughput/next-generation sequencing, plant molecular biology and bioinformatics. They can be tailored to fit individual interests and the scholarship is for 3 years.

International applicants are welcome to all positions in my lab. Contact me for informal discussion and further information.

The lab is recruiting doctoral students and postdocs. Send me a message if you think you'd be a good fit!

I was very pleased to publish a collaborative paper with Joe Ecker, Tom Hardcastle, David Baulcombe and several of his lab this week - available open access in PNAS. It describes our studies on shoot-root transmission of sRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana that regulate root DNA methylation. A nice press release from the Salk Institute can be found here.