Biophysics/Systems Biology: Photochrome signaling in plants

Applications are invited for a PhD position in the group of Dr. Christian Fleck http://www.fdmold.uni-freiburg.de/~cfleck/ .

The successful candidate will work on the computational modeling of the phytochrome signaling in plants in close collaboration with experimental groups in Freiburg, Germany and Edinburgh, UK. Plant survival depends crucially on the availability of external light. Therefore, multiple photoreceptors (light sensing proteins) regulate the plant development according to the spectral quality and light intensity. In order to understand the light regulated developmental processes in plants it is essential to understand the underlying light mediated dynamics of the photoreceptors. Much knowledge about the phyB dynamics and the light induced morphogenetic effects was gathered over the last decades. The meaningful understanding of the data, however, is beyond an intuitive approach and requires theoretical modelling. In this joint project together with experimental groups in Freiburg and Edinburgh,UK, we try to understand the dynamics of light regulated processes using detailed information about the molecular interactions. To this end we mainly employ non-linear and stochastic differential equations. Due to the complexity of the equations one has in most case to revert to numerical methods. In this collaboration we have a very intense interaction between theory and experiment. We are looking for someone who wishes to work theoretically but in close collaboration with biologists.

Profile
Candidates ideally fulfill the following criteria:
- Master in theoretical biology, mathematics or physics
- able to communicate with scientists in biology and mathematics
- good programming skills

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