The Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) is looking for a technician with expertise in plant physiology and molecular biology who will help the postdoctoral researchers on the project with setting up and carrying out methods and assays to study these potato signalling molecules.

Several molecular and biotechnological tools will be used to investigate the role of signalling molecules in the interaction of potato with nematodes. You will help with the identification of candidate genes through a number of approaches such as RNAseq, QTL mapping, agroinfiltration, all aimed at finding out how these signalling molecules are produced in plants. You will develop gene silencing/knockout techniques to manipulating the signalling molecule production in potato, as well as high throughput bioassays with nematodes to evaluate the silencing/ knockout effects. The most promising genes will be used for stable transformation of potato. Together with the postdoc and other technicians in the group, the technician will help to do metabolite extraction for several types of analytical analyses to analyse the effect of gene silencing experiments on signalling metabolite production

You have:

• a degree in Higher Professional Education (HBO/HLO) or University in a field relevant for this project;
• expertise in molecular biology, in vitro work;
• good command of English.

Furthermore you are a team-player, accurate, practical and goal oriented, able to multi-task and open to learn new techniques.

Fixed-term contract: One year.

The appointment will be on a temporary basis for a period of 1 year (0,8 FTE). After satisfactory evaluation it can be extended with 2 more years to a total duration of 3 years. Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will be maximum €2,579 (scale 7-3) in the first year, depending on relevant work experience. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences

The Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) is an institute that belongs to the Faculty of Science. Its approximately 230 scientists and staff members work in 16 research groups that perform excellent research, centred on four themes:

1. Green Life Sciences
2. Cell & Systems Biology
3. Neurosciences and
4. Microbiology

Within the theme Green Life Sciences five research groups have dedicated their research to plants: Plant Physiology, Molecular Plant Pathology, Developmental Genetics, Plant Cell Biology and Plant Hormone Biology. The recently established research group Plant Hormone Biology investigates the role of plant hormones and other signalling molecules in the communication of plants with other organisms. In this project, which is funded by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research Applied & Engineering Sciences domain (NWO-TTW), we will investigate the role of signalling molecules in the interaction of potato with nematodes. The research should shed light on the importance of these molecules for this interaction and provide the fundamental knowledge enabling biotechnological and agronomical applications to control infestation by nematodes. The Plant Hormone Biology group consists of an international team of postdoctoral researchers, Phd candidates and technicians with expertises varying from analytical chemistry to biochemistry to molecular biology who are working on related topics.