Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (IF) - Postdoc Position: study of gut microbiota (GM) role on human health through metabolomics

Universidad San Pablo CEU (CEU) is a young university founded in Madrid in 1993. CEU is committed to academic and professional excellence, aiming for the best quality in education, research and internationalization. CEU is a specialized University and structures its studies on three main fields of knowledge: “Social sciences and humanities”, “Health and life sciences” and “Architecture and Engineering”.

CEU facilities include 8 Research Centers, 43 Research Groups and 11 Core Research Facilities which sum an area of 3,400 m² devoted to research. Over the past 3 years, University:

• Has been granted 35 competitive research projects.

• Achieves collaborations with Industry meaning 65% of R&D funding.

• Obtained almost € 1M from European Commission 7^th Framework Programme and is participating in three H2020 projects, including a MSCA-IF grant.

CEU is looking for a highly motivated candidate to apply for MSCA-IF-2017 calls, to participate in currently on-going research project in the emerging field of gut microbiota. Nowadays, there is a strong emphasis on the role of gut microbiota on health and disease of prevention, diagnosis and treatment through application systems biology based research.

Together with the selected candidate a proposal will be written and submitted. The involvement of the selected candidate in the proposal writing process will provide ample opportunity to tailor the proposal to her / his research interests. A successful application will result in an appointment under approved conditions.

The Center for Metabolomics and Bioanalysis (CEMBIO) is located at Pharmacy Faculty.

CEMBIO team has more than 10 years of research experience in metabolomics with mass spectrometry coupled to different separation techniques: Improving the analytical workflow, data mining strategies and collaborating with groups in different fields of application.

Coral Barbas, Head of CEMBIO since its foundation in 2008, is Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry since 2007, and Marie Curie Researcher at King´s College London in 2005/2006, Prof. Barbas is visiting professor of Imperial College London, collaborating with Prof Jeremy Nicholson´s group since 2013, and at Medical University of Bialystok in Poland, collaborating with the doctorate program in “OMICS” technologies. Part of 12 national and 5 international R&D projects funded in public calls (12 as PI), and responsible of 12 cooperation contracts with different industries.

She has published more than 190 original papers in journals indexed in JCR, most of them in Q1. She has published 6 book chapters and she has participated as invited speaker in more than 60 international conferences. She has supervised 16 PhD thesis that obtained the highest mark.

CEMBIO team gathers 20 people from than 7 nationalities, including Professors, post-docs, PhDs, graduates, trainees and technical staff. Their areas of knowledge are: Analytical Chemistry; Mass Spectrometry; Biochemistry; Pharmacy; Statistics.

Main Equipment: LC-MS (QTOF); LC-MS(QqQ); LC-MS (Ion trap); GC-MS (Ion trap); GC-MS (Quadrupole); CE-MS (TOF); GC-QTOF-MS; Platforms for data treatment.

www.metabolomica.uspceu.es

CEMBIO offers a unique opportunity to join an on-going research project in the emerging field of gut microbiota. Nowadays, there is a strong emphasis on the role of gut microbiota on health and disease of prevention, diagnosis and treatment through application systems biology based research.

One of our specific interests is centered on the study of gut microbiota (GM) role on human health through metabolomics. We have demonstrated that several diseases (obesity, systemic lupus erythematosus, Clostridium difficile infection and HIV infection) induce different changes in the metabolic profile of the gut microbiota, which has a direct influence on human health status. Our aim is getting deeper knowledge on the role of GM in specific diseases and study the effect of potential nutritional interventions.

Metabolomics provides deeper insights in the pathogenesis and discovery of biomarker patterns of diseases by obtaining a unique metabolite pattern, or “fingerprint” specific for each sample that provides information of compounds with a potential diagnostic or predictive power. Researcher will be working with a new generation state-of-the-art equipment including liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis separation platforms coupled with mass spectrometry. Metabolomics data will be incorporated with the clinical characteristics of studied population for comprehensive univariate and multivariate statistical analysis, followed by extensive biochemical interpretation and final data interpretation.

Applicant will have the opportunity to work in an international and multidisciplinary group, develop research skills and have publish results in peer-reviewed high indexes scientific journals.

At the deadline for the submission of proposals (14/09/2017), researchers (*):

• Shall be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience.

• Must not have resided or carried out their main activities in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline.

An expression of interest shall be sent to before 15^th of July 2017. Your file should contain the following elements:

• A short CV: Only CVs with considerable scientific achievements will be considered. Candidates should have an excellent track record of research; they should demonstrate the ability to grow into scientific/technological leadership roles.

• A two-page research proposal.

• A short statement explaining why CEU would be the best host institution for your research.

• Two letters of reference.