The Institute

The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) is an international biomedical research institute of excellence, based in Barcelona, Spain, with more than 400 scientists from 44 countries. The CRG is composed by an interdisciplinary, motivated and creative scientific team which is supported both by a flexible and efficient administration and by high-end and innovative technologies. 

In April 2021, the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) received the renewal of the 'HR Excellence in Research' Award from the European Commission. This is a recognition of the Institute's commitment to developing an HR Strategy for Researchers, designed to bring the practices and procedures in line with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (Charter and Code). 

Please, check out our Recruitment Policy

The role  

A PhD position is offered to work on the problem of context-dependency in gene regulation. This study will aim to deepen and clarify our understanding of how transcription factors read the genome, which is needed in both basic and applied biological settings. The work will be at the interface between biology, mathematics and physics, and will combine biophysical modelling, machine learning and data analysis to ground modern experimental data in mechanism.  

About the lab  

A long-sought goal of modern biology and related areas is to accurately and quantitatively predict the behavior of cells, tissues and organisms under perturbations like mutations or drugs. This is needed in medicine to accurately diagnose and treat diseases, as well as for bioengineering applications in a range of fields. To this end, quantitative mathematical models are key to reveal how a given behavior emerges from the dynamical interactions among a system of components deemed key to it, and how perturbations will affect it. The problem is that there are always elements in the “context” that cannot be accounted for in detail, but which also modulate the behavior of the system. Our lab aims to reveal fundamental insight about the effects of context on cellular regulatory processes. For this, we combine theoretical approaches based on dynamical systems models, biophysical models, machine learning and quantitative data analysis. At the moment, we are particularly interested in gene regulation. We aim to go beyond the well-established recruitment view of transcriptional control and clarify how the dynamics of the interactions between the various gene regulatory molecules dictates their emergent behavior, with a particular emphasis on chromatin-related regulatory effects.  

Our lab is part of the Barcelona Collaboratorium for Modelling and Predictive Biology, a newly created center focused on theoretical and predictive biology. 

Whom would we like to hire?  

Professional experience  

• Experience programming in C++ 

• Experience using container software (docker, singularity)

Education and training

• You hold a Bachelor’s degree in biology, physics, mathematics or related areas 

Suggestions: The CRG believes in ongoing improvement and promotes a culture of feedback. This is one of the reasons we have in place, at your disposal as a candidate, a mechanism to gather your suggestions/complaints concerning your candidate experience in our recruitment processes. Your feedback really matters to us in our aim at creating a positive candidate journey. You can make a difference and help us improve by letting us know your suggestions through the following form. https://recruitment.crg.eu/webforms/recruitment-contact-form-suggestionscomplaints

FPI- SO/ RYC 9152 / AEI PE 2021-2023_PRTR_NextGen