Postdoctoral Research Associate

**About the role**





This is a 5-year postdoctoral post that will form part of an international
consortium, the ‘Cassava Source Sink Project (https://cass-research.org/) that
is working to improve the yield of cassava plants through transgenic
intervention. The ultimate aim of the consortium is to develop improved
genotypes in farmer-preferred varieties to be made available to smallholders
in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project is targeting metabolism and development of
the cassava storage root as well as development and transport in the stem. The
project has already been running for 10 years and this post is associated with
a renewal of the funding for a further 5 years. Funded by the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation / AgOne subject to contract.





**About you**





This postdoctoral post will be responsible for constructing and analysing
computational models of cassava metabolism in different tissues and in the
whole plant. The post-holder will benefit from extensive pre-existing data
from the consortium as well as new data to be provided during the five-year
course of the project. The goal will be to guide ongoing transgenic strategies
with targets identified from the modelling being incorporated into the
transgenesis and field trial pipelines. The longer-term goal is to develop a
whole plant model that can integrate with in-field phenotyping to provide
early predictions of yield potential of different genotypes.





**How to apply**





Applications should include the application letter, a CV, a list addressing
the job criteria, and names of two academic references. Where Covid-19 has
resulted in substantial disruption to your work or research outputs, please
explain this by providing an additional paragraph in your supporting
statement.





The University of Oxford is committed to equality and valuing diversity. All
applicants will be judged on merit, according to the selection criteria.





This post is a 5-year fixed term, full time position and available from 01 May
2024.





The closing date for applications is 12.00 noon on 12 March 2024, interviews
are likely to be scheduled between 5 – 12 April 2024. For further inquiries,
please contact Prof Lee Sweetlove lee.sweetlove@biology.ox.ac.uk