Month: June 2015

The primary responsibilities of this role, as a Grad Scholar, are to:

• Participating in a multi-disciplinary team of scientists to offer bioinformatics, genomics, transcriptomics and metagenomics for controlling pests and diseases in plant and promoting plant health using microbes;

• Proactively identifying and incorporating new algorithms and technology to automate the analysis of microbial genomes and to extend the features of existing analysis pipelines;

• Understanding the dynamics of plant, microbe and pest/pathogen interaction using various omics technologies;

• Managing next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and analyses;

• Training scientific staff on the use of relevant bioinformatics software and tools;

• Working with other non-bioinformatics team member in the CLS group to understand their roles and to serve as backups as needed;

• Communicating effectively through listening, documentations and presentations, especially using compelling visualization tools to share analysis and interpretation of data.

Your success will be driven by your demonstration of our LIFE values. More specifically related to this position, Bayer seeks an incumbent who possesses the following:

• PhD in Computational Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Plant Biology,Bioinformatics, Genomics or related field with 0-1 year of post-graduate experience or a Master’s with 4+ years, or BSc. with 6+ years of post-graduate experience and currently enrolled in a graduate program.

• Proven ability to handle large data sets efficiently using scripts, databases, and other tools;

• Familiar with state-of-the-art open source and commercial bioinformatics tools;

• In depth familiarity with various public genomic databases, statistical software tools and packages such as R and bioinformatics algorithms, particularly for the analysis of NGS data (Illumina and PacBio);

• Should be comfortable enough with some basic statistical concepts and able to converse with other scientists about how to interpret basic statistical analyses such as ANOVA, linear regression, and power analyses.

• Experiences in three or more of the following areas: Comparative genomics; Transcriptome sequencing analysis; Phylogenetic analysis; Pathway modeling and analysis; and/or Metagenomics analysis;

Preferred Skills/Qualifications:

• Familiarity with SQL and relational database, particularly PostgreSQL;

• Fluent in Python, Perl, or other scripting languages;

• Previous laboratory experience;

• Knowledge of fungal, bacterial, insect, or plant genetics;

• Working with high performance computing clusters and/or cloud services.

Interested applicants should please send a resume and a cover letter to

Dilara Ally : email: dilara.ally

GradScholar.docx

Brooke Borel

“Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World”

Thursday June 4, 2015

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

UC Davis Memorial Union – MU II

Host: Jonathan Eisen

Brooke Borel is a science writer who is a Contributing Editor at Popular Science and has written for Slate, Aeon, PBS’s Nova Next, and many other publications and sites.  Her first book has just been published by the University of Chicago Press.  The book is   Infested: How The Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World and it is getting praise from all over the place (see some reviews below). She will be at UC Davis on June 4 to discuss the book and some of the fun, interesting, scary and wonderful things about bed bugs.

Some reviews of the book below:

New York Times Book Review (by Marlene Zuk)

“A book about bedbugs is, by necessity, a book about nearly everything: about travel and adventure, about our ­relationship to nature, about how scientists solve problems, about trust and whether we view strangers as friends or foes. It is a book about what people will do under extreme circumstances, and about environmental politics, and art and mental illness. It is even a book about kinky sex. Borel deftly takes us through this arthropod microcosm of the universe, as she traces the culture and biology of a resurgent scourge.”

Carl Zimmer, author of A Planet of Viruses

“Our encounters with bed bugs used to be limited to wishes for a good night’s sleep. But now they’re everywhere—in hotels, apartments, and even subways. In her fascinating book Infested,  Borel chronicles the renaissance of this frightful insect and leaves us marveling at their remarkable biology.”

Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA

“In an odyssey that begins with understandable loathing and ends with surprising sympathy, Borel takes us on a smart, subtle, witty journey through the biology and history of the bed bug—an insect that has been our companion for hundreds of millennia, yet one that we barely understand and have no clue how to control. Borel captures the persistence of the bug, the obsessiveness of its foes, and the eagerness of entrepreneurs to turn a quick profit with no thought for the long consequences. It is impossible to read Infested without experiencing fascination, respect—and just maybe, a phantom itch.”

Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy

“Borel has done the seemingly impossible: written an absolute page-turner of a book about bed bugs. Infested is as engaging as it is erudite, as fun as it is informative. This is popular science writing at its best.”

Dan Vergano, National Geographic

“A fun, wild romp through the wily world of bed bugs and the folks hunting them down. Borel travels from Brooklyn bedposts to Bohemian benches on the trail of this burgeoning pest, itching for the reader as she goes. Infested unveils the secrets of these frankly weird bloodsuckers, right down to their unlikely sex lives, and introduces readers to the obsessives looking to stop their march into your own bed. A terrific science book.”

5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Jonathan Eisen 

1. He doesn’t know how to play Minecraft
2. He mailed grass when he was a little kid
3. His new phone is “precious” to him
4. He loves Let it Go and Taylor Swift
5. He has very ugly pink boots