Join Us Microbial Ecosystems Lab at Colorado State University

The Wrighton laboratory in beautiful Fort Collins, CO!

We are always interested in hearing from talented, motivated undergraduate and potential graduate students.

Please follow the directions below for how to start this process.

Undergraduate Students

If you are an undergraduate seeking part-time, paid employment (we do not consider volunteer employees), email Rebecca Daly (reb.daly@colostate.edu). We do request that for the first semester students have at least two 3-hour windows for research. If your schedule has this time, please email Rebecca with your (1) CV, (2) availability, and (3) brief email stating what interests you about working in the Wrighton lab.

Potential Graduate Students

Graduate students seeking a Fall 2023 start date: Dr. Wrighton does not have resources to directly fund a Masters or PhD student this fall (i.e. students accepted through GDPE or Soil and Crop Sciences require mentor funding to be admitted). The laboratory can support students who apply and are admitted to Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) and Microbiology (MIP) Phd programs as these programs have first-year training grants. The laboratory can also support students who have their own funding through any of the department routes, and Dr. Wrighton is willing to support and supplement student acquired funding. Please reach out for more guidance or clarity.

Staff and Post-Doctoral Trainees

Dr. Wrighton is happy to discuss supporting future post-docs in writing fellowships related to our laboratory research. If you have a fellowship in mind, please email Dr. Wrighton and provide (1) your CV, (2) brief statement of research interests and why the Wrighton lab is a good fit, and (3) fellowship information.

Current Funded Opportunities:

Postdoctoral Fellow

A postdoctoral position with a focus on the gut microbiome is available in the laboratory of Dr. Kelly Wrighton. This position is part of a National Institutes of Health (NIAID) R01 supported research effort that investigates chemical and microbiological changes that occur temporally during inflammation induced by diet or pathogen (Salmonella) invasion. The successful post-doctoral candidate will perform computational and statistical analysis on the murine and human microbiome to understand microbial interactions with health and disease.

This job will entail applying and developing microbiome analyses using multi-omic data from the mouse and human gut. The objective of the ongoing research is to identify features of the microbiome using shotgun metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing, metabolomics, and 16S amplicon sequencing data to discover taxa, gene families, enzymes, and/or pathways associated with various phenotypes, exposures, and outcomes. There will be regular interactions with internal and external contacts, including collaborators and their laboratories who provide expertise in metabolomics and Salmonella pathogenesis. Mentoring duties include PhD or Masters students in the laboratory, while optional teaching duties include the development of guest lectures in Dr. Wrighton’s classes and short course workshops.

See official job posting for more information and instructions for application.

Computational Biologist

This position will perform microbial genomics research using computational and statistical analyses to decipher biological meaning from genome sequences and related data, including both DNA and RNA sequences, as well as other microbiome data. The roles and responsibilities of this position will include:
1. Analyzing internally and externally generated microbiome data using standard pipelines as well as innovative approaches
2. Working alongside microbiologists, computational biologists, environmental scientists in a team project environment, with the end goal of contributing to the discovery of functions and interactions encoded in microbial community genomic data
3. Lead development of reproducible science, data management, and server operations protocols for within and outside the laboratory (github, Jupyter, snakemake or other workflows)
4. Contribute to the development of DRAM, the Wrighton laboratory genome annotation software, and new computational tools and frameworks for microbiome data science
5. Establishing, benchmarking, and validating pipelines and approaches for analysis of next generation DNA and RNA sequencing data, integrating these data types as well as metabolomics and proteomics data
6. Incorporate cutting-edge analyses and optimization to ensure bioinformatics pipelines are contemporary and of the highest standards
7. Contribute data and figures for the public dissemination of the research output via scientific publications and presentations
8. Contribute to writing publications and grants

See official job posting for more information and instructions for application.

Software Developer

The Wrighton laboratory is looking for a junior to intermediate software developer with microbiome/microbiology experience to continue to develop DRAM, the laboratory developed genome annotation software (See Shaffer et al, 2020, Nucleic Acid Research). This position will include working alongside microbiologists and computational biologists in a team environment, with the end goal of building software that can analyze, synthesize, and visualize microbial next generation sequence data.
Specific DRAM software responsibilities include:
(1) Maintain and update existing open-source data portal for microbial genomics analyses
(2) Troubleshoot and address user concerns and suggest improvements to existing coding structure
(3) Design, develop, and implement new web applications
(4) Handle communication between cross-functional teams from different sectors (e.g. industry, start-ups, national laboratories, and universities)
(5) Act as a technical liaison to microbiome scientists, help co-develop training workshops

See official job posting for more information and instructions for application.