Jobs

Postdoctoral Scientist – Food, Microbial and Host Interactions - AgResearch New Zealand

Three-year fixed term position

Joining New Zealand’s largest Crown Research Institute could mean the difference between a good career and a great one. As world leaders in pastoral research, you’ll find discovery and innovation runs in our bloodstream, which means world-class opportunities for you to make your mark.

The Food Nutrition & Health Team within the Food and Bio-based Products Group requires a Postdoctoral Scientist to contribute to our fundamental and applied research into understanding the regulation of the intestinal barrier function. As a first step, our research focuses on milk, a multi-component food to which the human intestine is exposed from a young age, to identify the components associated with improved intestinal barrier resilience. Our research also addresses the lack of mechanistic evidence for how these ingredients (including probiotics) exert such biological effects to provide knowledge to the New Zealand dairy industry for developing ingredients that improve intestinal barrier resilience for the infants and the aged.

This three-year position is based at AgResearch Grasslands in Palmerston North. We need an enthusiastic, motivated person to join our group and we offer a stimulating environment where the focus is very much on leadership, people, high performance, science outcomes and keeping it ‘fun’.

The person best suited to this position will have a PhD in cell biology, microbiology, physiology, nutritional science or similar. The candidate will also have experience in intestinal function research using in vivo and in vitro model systems and expertise in advanced data mining.

The successful candidate will have the ability to collaborate with teams inside and outside of AgResearch, to work in an organised and structured manner without close supervision and have an adaptive approach to work with the ability to manage a variety of tasks. Excellent written and oral communication skills are essential, including fluency in English.

PLEASE APPLY ONLINE via www.agresearch.co.nz selecting the vacancy number you wish to apply for. Closing date for applications is 4 March 2012. (See job description online.)

For further information, contact Dr Nicole Roy:

Phone: +64-7-838-5196

Email: nicole.roy@agresearch.co.nz.