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Fondazione Edmund Mach
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PhD position at the University of Pisa, Department of Biology, and Fondazione Mach - deadline July 25, 2018, h 13.00 (C.E.T.)

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Short description

The Ethology Unit at the Department of Biology of the University of Pisa (UNIPI), in collaborationwith the Research and Innovation Centre of the Edmund Mach Foundation (FEM), is offering a PhD position within the project entitled “The eco-epidemiology and risk assessment of hidden food-borne parasites at the edge of their distributions. The case of Echinococcus multilocularis in northeastern Italy”.Echinococcus multilocularis (Em), a tapeworm circulating between canids (definitive hosts) androdents (intermediate hosts), is the aetiological agent of Alveolar Echinococcosis (AE), one of themost relevant food-borne parasites in the world. The Trentino-Alto Adige Region represents one of the southernmost marginal areas in the EU. Despite its relevance, the ecological determinants of Em distribution and its transmission dynamics are still not well understood, especially where it is still spreading. This proposal aims to investigate the role of individual definitive hosts andintermediate host community in shaping Em distribution at the edge of its European range and tomodel its transmission at local and regional scale using mathematical and statistical epidemiological models.The PhD candidate will work in collaboration with the local Institute of experimental zoo-prophylaxis, UNIPI and FEMto assess the distribution of the various haplotypes of Em present in the Trentino-Alto Adige Region, and to study in detail the ecology of transmission in both definitive andintermediate hosts in the areas where the parasite is more prevalent. Finally, the student willdevelop a mathematical model of transmission at local scale whose outcomes will be integrated into a large scale spatially explicit statistical model to assess the risk of animal infections and inform on the relative risk for humans through the consumption of berries or other forest products in the Region.

Publication date

18/07/2018

Job announcement

Candidate requisites and preferred qualitiesThe preferred candidate needs to be a good team player with excellent communication skills, bothwithin the academic as well as the non-academic setting.Priority will be given to candidates with some experience in classic and/or molecular parasitology,and/or classic and/or molecular epidemiology, or in mathematical modelling. Ability and interest tolearn are key.PhD program and salaryThe Position will last 3 years. Overall gross salary is of about 20.000€/year. Students are expectedto spend some time in other labs for at least 6 months and a maximum of 1.5 years.Deadline: July 25, 2018, 13:00, local time.The candidates will be selected by cv and exams.Exams will take place on August 30th 2018 in Pisa in person or via skype.For more information, contact alessandro.massolo@unipi.it.For the official call, pre-requisites and scholarship characteristics, please visit the PhD website ofUNIPI .Call