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Synthetic biology is still far from producing flexible, programmable, scalable and predictable engineered constructs able to perform complex computations. The main problem has arisen from the fact that, in contrast to electronic designs where wires have identical nature, in a cell-based system each wire would correspond to a different molecular entity. In a joint effort between theoretical and experimental studies, we have established biological circuits with Distributed Computation capacity (Regot et al., Nature 2011), opening the possibility to develop a novel method of properly design general purpose, LEGO-like multicellular systems able to partially avoid wiring limitation. Here, we propose to explore the limits of Distributed Computation in synthetic cellular systems.

We offer one postdoctoral research position in the Complex Systems Lab. headed by Dr. Ricard Solé, at the Pompeu Fabra University (http://complex.upf.es/). We are located at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB). This work will be carried out together with Dr. Francesc Posas’ group (UPF, http://www.upf.edu/cellsignaling/). This project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC, 7th FP) and La Caixa.

For more information please visit the web sites below:
http://www.prbb.org; http://www.upf.edu/cellsignaling; http://complex.upf.es/

References:
Regot S, et al. Nature (2011); Macia J, et al. Science Signal. (2009).

Candidate Requirements:
We seek for highly motivated and independent candidates with an excellent track record and a PhD in physics, engineering or computer sciences and strong experience in genetic circuits modelling, systems biology and computation (DO NOT apply if not met).
She/he should be fluent in English and have an interactive personality.

Conditions:
Salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Starting date: 2012 (as soon as possible or by agreement).

Application Procedure:
If you are interested please submit a recent CV, a description of past achievements and future career goals along with names and contact information of two references to Dr. Morillas: montserrat.morillas@upf.edu
Deadline: 15th September 2012.