The USJ Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (CBBio) group is recruiting a PhD student to participate in a funded project for the discovery and design of antimicrobial peptides.  The candidate will use molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations to study the mode of action of antimicrobial peptides towards target proteins and membranes. The duration of this project is two years.

CBBio is dedicated to developing and use computational techniques for computer-aided drug design, including protein-ligand docking, virtual screening, molecular dynamics, machine learning and deep learning, and nature-inspired optimization algorithms to discover novel drugs. The main research targets are bacterial drug resistance proteins, bacterial secretion systems, bacterial membranes, small molecules ligand and short peptides.

Qualifications	Background in Biology/Chemistry/Biophysics/Medical/Pharmaceutical Sciences or Bioinformatics Interested in computational structure modeling and simulation Experience in molecular dynamics (GROMACS/AMBER/CHARMM) and protein-ligand docking (e.g., AutoDock Vina) is advantageous Willing to learn Python/R programming and shell scripting Has journal or conference publications preferred Excellent English verbal and writing
Submission for initial screening	Email the following to Shirley: (1) CV, (2) academic transcripts (bachelor and master degrees), (3) representative publications, and (4) master thesis
Duration of the funded position	As soon as possible, until 31 March 2024; extension subject to fund availability and performance
PhD application deadline	31 August 2022; check the Graduate Admissions page for details
Contact the PI	Shirley Siu at shirley.siu@usj.edu.mo
More information	Lab’s homepage, Shirley’s official page