[AgMIP] Funded iCASE PhD in Edinburgh: Predicting Plant Growth, from Genes to Organism

[agmip at lists.agmip.org]

We invite applications to a groundbreaking PhD studentship, which provides dual-expertise training in the interdisciplinary environment of SynthSys, with experience at Simulistics Ltd.  The project is fully-funded for UK and resident EU students, through a BBSRC industrial CASE studentship.

Understanding the growth of a plant in a changing environment is demanding, because plant development and metabolism respond sensitively to the local conditions. We have linked Crop Science and Systems Biology approaches to understand whole-plant growth, in a 'Framework Model' of the laboratory model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The model predicts whole-plant biomass, from detailed molecular mechanisms, and was recently validated in independent experiments. This project will develop the next-generation model, both as a tool for fundamental biology, and to enable synthetic biology designs that take account of the complex regulation in the plant host. You will be trained to use a range of cutting-edge models, building on the concrete example of our Framework Model. The model will be extended to represent larger, molecular networks that control biomass under a wider range of environmental conditions, with  international collaborators. Simple tools will be developed to visualise the models, including Simulistics' Simile software, suitable for teaching, training and dissemination in the research community. You will have the opportunity to join the international crop modelling and systems biology communities to develop far-reaching standards for this emerging area. 

Student profile: background in Biology, Geoscience,  Agricultural Engineering or a suitably numerate discipline (e.g. computer science, engineering, applied maths or physics). Computer skills essential; programming experience desirable but not essential.

The supervisory team:  Prof. Andrew Millar FRS, School of Biological Sciences (main supervisor); Prof. Vincent Danos, School of Informatics, Director of SynthSys; Dr. Robert Muetzelfeldt, Simulistics Ltd.

Only online applications, please, by 6 Jan 2014:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=12&cw_xml=details.php  
Contact andrew.millar at ed.ac.uk  for informal enquiries.

Andrew Millar
SynthSys
C.H. Waddington Building
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh EH9 3JD
Scotland

www.synthsys.ed.ac.uk; www.amillar.org



-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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