PhD student bioinformatics and the origin of eukaryotes (1.0 FTE)

You are a PhD student to join our team as part of a project that addresses the origin and ancient evolution of the eukaryotes, funded by a recently awarded NWO VICI grant. The earliest stages of eukaryotic evolution are characterised by a drastic increase in cellular and genomic complexity: already before the last common ancestor of all modern eukaryotes cellular components like the nucleus, cilia, mitochondria, and the elaborate endomembrane system had arisen. You will use our unique in-house collection of eukaryotic genome sequences, some of which have only recently become available, to reconstruct ancestral gene repertoires using bioinformatic techniques. In combination with prokaryotic genome sequences, these repertoires will enable you to elucidate the processes that resulted in the increase in complexity, such as gene and whole-genome duplications, endosymbiosis and horizontal gene transfer.