POSTDOC POSITION (3yr): MODELING AND VERIFICATION OF SIGNALING PATHWAYS
within the Formal Methods and Tools Group (University of Twente)
RESEARCH
An important topic in cell biology is the integration and translation of environmental signals by cells, which is of fundamental significance for cellular cooperation and survival and is carried out by signal transduction pathways. These pathways are tightly interconnected into signaling networks, defects in which underly a wide range of diseases. Recent advances in high-throughput technologies have led to the availability of large amounts of experimental data on cellular processes. The analysis of these data is not feasible without software supported modeling. Timed automata models can be expected to be well-suited for the specific challenges in modeling cellular signal transduction networks, since they are able to deal with quantitative and concurrency issues and, because of efficient analysis algorithms, can be applied to larger models. The feasibility of this approach has been demonstrated by a prototype tool.
The Postdoc is expected to pursue this approach in several directions. Modeling and analysis capabilities of method and tool should be enhanced, where addressing stochastic issues is an interesting option. Abstraction techniques should be identified in order to tackle large models. And the tool support should be extended and be proven in actual biological research. This research should be performed in collaboration with colleagues from the Human Media Interaction group (HMI) and the Research Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine (MIRA), both at the University of Twente.
PROFILE
You will be appointed for a period of three years. Your salary is dependent on experience and background, but will minimally be EUR 2861 gross per month, plus benefits.
INFORMATION AND APPLICATION
You can obtain further information about this position from: Dr.ir. Rom Langerak, langerak@cs.utwente.nl.
You are invited to send an application by e-mail before August 23, 2010, with a cc to J.M.W.Lammerink@ewi.utwente.nl. Your application should consist of a cover letter, a curriculum vitae (including detailed information regarding your academic degree) and the names and addresses of two references.
CONTEXT
The Formal Methods and Tools group (FMT) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands is part of the Computer Science department (of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science), one of the largest academic institutions in computer science in the Netherlands. The research of the department is part of the multidisciplinary research institute Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT).