[Nhcoll-l] Postdoctoral Fellow position, American Museum of Natural History

[Christopher Raxworthy]

Postdoctoral Fellow, Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History. New York, USA

The American Museum of Natural History is recruiting an exceptional postdoc to be part of a highly innovative project to optimize techniques in isolating historical DNA (hDNA), modeling DNA degradation, and analyzing DNA from specimens in the herpetology and ornithology collections at the (AMNH). This project is funded by a National Science Foundation award to Christopher Raxworthy and Brian T. Smith in the Division of Vertebrate Zoology, AMNH.

This NSF-funded project aims to develop efficient and open-source protocols for yielding genome-scale molecular data from typical traditional museum specimens, based on rigorous experiments using time-series collections at the AMNH. Museum specimens of amphibians, reptiles, and birds will be sampled for DNA across two collecting periods of: 1) <1–30 years for field-frozen, dry and fluid preserved voucher tissues, all taken from the same specimens for which alternative DNA prep types will be directly compared; and 2) 30–150 years, for older traditional voucher specimens which lack frozen tissue samples. This combined approach will determine the optimal source and extraction methods for hDNA, develop improved methods for reverse crosslinking with formalin-fixed DNA, and provide a much deeper understanding of how DNA degrades due to exposure to formalin, alcohol, tissue buffers, and archival storage time. This project will also develop pipelines for bioinformatics processing of hDNA, to better detect contamination, evaluate the effects of hDNA on phylogenetic inference, and improve the utility of hDNA in all aspects of comparative biology.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: conduct and co-design experimental tests of DNA extraction; prepare samples for molecular sequencing; analyze molecular data; model DNA degradation across sample types and time; manage project internet portal and web pages; co-mentor undergraduate and high school students; co-develop best-practices for bioinformatics processing of hDNA; and prepare results for publication as lead author. The postdoc will have opportunities to present their work at conferences, attend various professional development activities, and get to participate on an expedition to Madagascar to collect samples for the project.  Currently, this is a 2.5 year term position.

Required experience

Ph.D. or equivalent in evolutionary biology, computational biology, or related fields and demonstrated record of productivity and publications. Experience with DNA extraction, next-generation sequencing, wetlab methods (ideally including ‘clean room’ DNA labs), computer programming (e.g., python; R), genomics, molecular evolution, and vertebrate biology.

 For full details about this position please see:
https://careers.amnh.org/postings/2397
Application review will begin on March 29, 2021, with a desired start date of July 1, 2021
Please contact Christopher Raxworthy (rax at amnh.org<mailto:rax at amnh.org>) with any questions regarding the position.
Christopher J. Raxworthy
Associate Curator, Division of Vertebrate Zoology
Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School, AMNH
Department of Herpetology
American Museum of Natural History
200 Central Park West (at 79th Street)
New York, NY 10024-5192, USA
tel. 212 769 5802 (direct), 5850 (dept.)
fax 212 769 5031
rax at amnh.org<mailto:rax at amnh.org>

http://www.amnh.org/our-research/staff-directory/christopher-j.-raxworthy





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