Position: Assistant Researcher Project: Principles of information decoding in developmental systems Place: Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland Principal investigator: Dr Marcin Zagórski

Development of multicellular organisms is a remarkably reproducible process. During development cells are exposed to chemical cues that determine cell fate with positional precision of a few cell diameters. How this reproducibility is achieved is a fundamental question in biology that is still poorly understood. The proposed project addresses this question by applying methods of theoretical physics to model specific biological systems. As a result, factors affecting information decoding in developmental systems will be identified. Identification of these factors can have substantial impact in studies in a broad range of tissues and stem cell systems.

Requirements: •    MSc in physics, mathematics, computer science or similar. •    Interest in the interdisciplinary aspect of the project. •    Experience with numerical solvers (C++, Python, or Mathematica). •    Good communication skills. • Experience in complex systems or biological networks will be an asset.

Research tasks: •    Proposing and analyzing models of developing tissue in the framework of theoretical physics. • Making model predictions that can be verified experimentally in selected biological systems. •    Participation in overall scientific activity of the research group.

We offer: •    Interdisciplinary research at the interface of physics and biology. More at http://zagorskigroup.com/ • Research projects jointly with experimental labs (Austria, UK). •    Research visits in foreign institutions and participation in international conferences.

Terms of employment:    Full time employment for initial 24 months with possible extension Starting date:     December 2019 Salary: 5 000 PLN before-tax per month

Application should consist of scientific CV, list of publications and one recommendation letter. The documents should be submitted to marcin.zagorski@uj.edu.pl. The application deadline is 18th November 2019, and results will be announced in the following week.