Vacancy for a PhD student

The research group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology (IMDO) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel is a dynamic and international research team where the majority of research projects aim to study the biodiversity of traditional fermented food products to identify and fully characterize interesting isolates of lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria. These isolates are further investigated towards their potential as innovative, functional starter cultures to be used in industrial food fermentations to improve texture, shelf-life and aroma of the fermented foods. Also, IMDO is involved in health-related research projects on pro- and prebiotics as functional foods.

To accomplish its mission, IMDO can rely on a state-of-the- art research infrastructure comprising computer-controlled fermentors, molecular microbiology equipment and an extensive analysis platform for metabolomics, as well as on an in-house developed functional gene microarray.



To strengthen its team, IMDO wants to hire a PhD student that will be involved in research on genomics, transcriptomics, and metagenomics of lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria. The successful candidate should have a Master degree in Bio-engineering Sciences, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, or Biology. Knowledge of bioinformatics software tools for sequence analysis and Perl scripting skills are a plus, as is hands-on experience with Linux and MySQL (or a related RDBMS). Further, the candidate should be a team-player and should have excellent communication skills.

For practical information concerning this vacancy, please contact
Dr. Stefan Weckx (stefan.weckx@vub.ac.be).

To apply for this vacancy, please send your application letter and curriculum vitae to:
Prof. Dr. ir. Luc De Vuyst
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology (IMDO)
Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel
E-mail: ldvuyst@vub.ac.be