Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Two PhD scholarship in invertebrate morphology: “Evolution and development of central organ systems in marine meiofauna” : Copenhagen, Denmark

 The Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen

Two 3-year PhD positions are available at the Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen. The positions will be jointly supervised by Katrine Worsaae, University of Copenhagen and Andreas Hejnol, Uni Sars Centre, Norway. Deadline for applications is June 11, 2012.
The scholarships will address the origin of central body designs through detailed studies of, microscopic, complex animals of the lesser-studied spiralian lineages. Hereby we seek answers to central questions such as: Was the last common spiralian ancestor relatively large and complex as annelids and mollusks? Or was it microscopic consisting of low number of cells only? How complex and regionalized is the brain of microscopic animals?
The PhD projects are expected to provide new scientific insight into the detailed structure, development, and evolution of central characters in selected spiralian meiofaunal taxa. Transcriptomes of these taxa are either in progress or will be generated during the project. The projects will combine the disciplines of advanced microscopy and immunochemistry (histology, TEM, CLSM, 3D reconstructions) with studies of gene expression patterns. Body designs and organ systems of interest could be e.g., the brain, sensory structures, seriality, cell numbers and size, dwarfism, alimentary canal. For further information on the project contact Assoc. Prof. Katrine Worsaae at kworsaae@bio.ku.dk. Please do not post your application to this address.
Further information and application formula at http://www.offentlige-stillinger.dk/sites/cfml/kbhuni/kbhuniVis.cfm?plugin=1&englishJobs=NO&nJobNo=204560&nLangNo=1