Postdoctoral Fellow, Mechanisms of Yeast Aging

Who We Are: 

Calico (Calico Life Sciences LLC) is an Alphabet-founded research and development company whose mission is to harness advanced technologies and model systems to increase our understanding of the biology that controls human aging. Calico will use that knowledge to devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives.  Calico’s highly innovative technology labs, its commitment to curiosity-driven discovery science, and, with academic and industry partners, its vibrant drug-development pipeline, together create an inspiring and exciting place to catalyze and enable medical breakthroughs.

Position Description:

Fundamental questions to be addressed by the successful applicant:

• How are cellular changes with age causally interconnected?
• What is the molecular basis of lifespan-extending mutations?

As a cell ages, it transits through different “states'' that define its aging process. Yet, recent studies in a variety of organisms have revealed that cells can take different trajectories as they age.  Calico has developed ways for addressing this complexity in a model organism, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These tools include development of  the Miniature-chemostat Aging Device for generating genome-scale datasets (link) from aged yeast, which we’ve recently extended to include single-cell RNAseq; the Yeast Lifespan Machine, which follows individual cells throughout their lifespan (link), including following cells with fluorescent reporters; computational frameworks for testing both specific molecular hypotheses through genetic perturbations and time-resolved profiling (link).

Calico is seeking a talented scientist with lab-bench and computational skills to lead an interdisciplinary effort bridging the Gottschling lab and Discovery Data Science team to address the questions above and ultimately building a predictive model of the mechanisms associated with aging-transitions. The aforementioned technologies can be used to generate novel datasets and test predictions in an iterative process.

Responsibilities:

• Develop a genome-scale mechanistic modeling approach to predict the molecular drivers of key molecular aging transitions
• Experimentally validate proposed mechanisms by genetically perturbing possible regulators in either a youthful or aged context
• Generate additional genome-scale datasets to support either the generation or interpretation of your aging mechanistic model

Position requirements:

• PhD in genetics, genomics, cell biology, computational biology, or related disciplines
• Strong record of research productivity with impactful scientific publications
• Familiarity with modeling mechanistic pathways using molecular data
• Fluency with Python (pandas, numpy, jupyter) and/or R (tidyverse)
• Hands-on experience with basic molecular biology techniques (PCR, nucleic acid purification, agarose gel electrophoresis, etc.), microscopy and/or NGS library preparation.
• Experience working with yeast or other microbes
• Must be willing to work onsite at least four days per week

The estimated base salary for this role is $90,000.

More information on our postdoctoral fellowship program can be found here.

Calico requires all new hires to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the first date of employment. As required by applicable law, Calico will consider requests for Reasonable Accommodations.