No of vacancies: 01

Pay scale:Rs. 15600 – 39100 + 6600/-

Essential Academic Qualifications / Experience : Good academic record as defined by the concerned university with at least 55% marks (or an equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed) at the Master's Degree level in a relevant subject from an Indian University, or an equivalent degree from an accredited foreign university.

Besides fulfilling the above qualifications, the candidate must have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by the UGC, CSIR or similar test accredited by the UGC like SLET/ SET.

Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-clauses (a) and (b) to this Clause, candidates, who are, or have been awarded a Ph.D. Degree in accordance with the University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2009, shall be exempted from the requirement of the minimum eligibility condition of NET/SLET/SET for recruitment and appointment of Assistant Professor or equivalent positions in Universities/Colleges/Institutions.

NET/SLET/SET shall also not be required for such Masters Programmes in disciplines for which NET/SLET/SET is not conducted.

Apply online: http://www.psc.cg.gov.in/htm/OA_ME2014.html

Last Date for Online Registration: 22/05/2014

For more details: http://www.psc.cg.gov.in/pdf/Advertisement/ADV_ME2014.pdf

The Power of Evo 2: AI Meets DNA

Evo 2 is the largest AI model for biology ever created, trained on an astonishing 9.3 trillion DNA "letters" (nucleotides) carefully selected from genomes spanning the entire tree of life. This massive dataset ensures that Evo 2 can recognize patterns and relationships in genetic sequences at an unparalleled scale.

For the first time, scientists can design DNA with AI, moving beyond simple sequence analysis to active DNA generation. Evo 2 enables researchers to predict, modify, and even create entire genetic sequences, opening new possibilities in medicine, agriculture, and synthetic biology.

Decoding the Dark Genome

One of the biggest challenges in genetics is understanding the non-coding regions of DNA—vast stretches of the genome that do not code for proteins but play crucial roles in regulating gene expression. These regions control when and how genes are activated, influencing everything from development to disease.

Evo 2 is designed to decode these non-coding elements, helping researchers uncover their functions and use this knowledge to develop gene-based therapies, synthetic life forms, and precision agriculture solutions.

From Reading DNA to Writing It

To put Evo 2’s impact into perspective:

• Previous AI models could "read" DNA like a book, analyzing genetic sequences and identifying patterns.
• Evo 2 can "write" entirely new DNA, designing functional genes, chromosomes, and even full genomes from scratch.

This means scientists can now engineer biological systems with AI, designing new proteins, metabolic pathways, and genetic circuits to address real-world challenges.

A Step Toward Generative Biology

The Arc Institute describes Evo 2 as a major step toward "generative biology"—a revolutionary approach where AI is used to create novel biological structures rather than just analyzing existing ones. This could lead to breakthroughs such as:

• New medicines: AI-generated enzymes and proteins tailored for targeted therapies.
• Disease-resistant crops: Genetically optimized plants for higher yield and climate resilience.
• Synthetic organisms: Custom-designed microbes for bioremediation, biofuel production, and industrial applications.

An Open-Source Revolution

Unlike many proprietary AI models, Evo 2 is open source, making its capabilities accessible to researchers worldwide. This democratization of AI-driven biology means that scientists from different disciplines can collaborate, experiment, and innovate, accelerating discoveries in genetic engineering and synthetic biology.

With Evo 2, the boundaries of what’s possible in DNA design, genetic engineering, and biological innovation are being redrawn. The future of life sciences is no longer just about understanding life’s code—it’s about writing it.

That is the challenge researchers face when studying how bacteria adapt to different environments. A bacterial gene may appear to be linked to a particular habitat, when the real reason is simply that closely related bacteria happen to live there.

In their 2025 Genome Biology paper, Bujdoš, Walter, and O’Toole introduce aurora, a machine-learning tool designed to tackle this problem.

Aurora identifies potentially mislabeled or unusual bacterial strains before performing genome-wide association studies (GWAS). By cleaning up the dataset and accounting for bacterial evolutionary relationships, it can help researchers find genetic features that are more genuinely connected to habitat adaptation.

The researchers tested aurora using simulated and real bacterial datasets and found that it could recover important genetic associations even when datasets contained misleading labels.

The bigger lesson is simple: better biological discoveries often begin with better data.

Aurora gives researchers a new way to separate real genetic clues from misleading ones—and could help us better understand how bacteria adapt, survive, and evolve in the environments they call home.

Based on Bujdoš et al., “aurora: a machine learning GWAS tool for analyzing microbial habitat adaptation,” Genome Biology (2025).[Read the original paper](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13059-025-03524-7?)

More at http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1000369

Address of the bookmark: http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1000369

Research Directions

Stony corals: evolution of novelty and photosymbiosis

Symbiotic acoels: cell type evolution and photosymbiosis

Animal genomes: structural evolution and gene regulation

https://sgel.biodiv.tw/home

ICRISAT seeks applications from Indian nationals Visiting Scientist-Computational Genomics (2 positions), to be part of a team of Centre of Excellence in Genomics (CEG), (www.icrisat.org/ceg) to work on legume genomics projects. The positions will be based at ICRISAT’s Headquarters in Patancheru, Hyderabad, India.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid tropics is home to over 2 billion people, with 650 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower those living in the semi-arid tropics, especially smallholder farmers, to overcome poverty, hunger, malnutrition and a degraded environment through more efficient and profitable agriculture. ICRISAT is headquartered in Greater Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and belongs to the Consortium of Centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The Job: Responsibilities for these positions include:

Analyzing and handling large-scale next generation sequencing DNA and RNA data
Data mining and development of pipelines and troubleshooting
Genome diversity analysis such as SNPs, Indels, Structural Variations, population structure
Genome wide association study (GWAS) related analysis- LD analysis, hapmap and trait mapping
Expression analysis based on RNA-Seq data, annotation, gene ontology and metabolic pathway analysis
Epigenome analysis, small RNA identification
Gene family analysis, sequence level protein analysis, orthology/paralogy and molecular modelling
Compiling and analysis of results, writing reports and research papers

The Person: Ph.D. or MSc/MTech/PGDCA with two years research experience in Biotechnology, Computational biology, Agricultural/ Plant Biotechnology, Genetics, Molecular Biology or related discipline. Good knowledge of programming/scripting in at least two of following languages: Perl, C, C++, R, Shell Scripting and Python is plus.

How to apply: Please apply latest by 20 July 2014. The application should include the name of the position applied for, a letter of motivation, a full Curriculum Vita (CV), and the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable of the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience. Technical details and more information about these positions can be obtained from R.K.VARSHNEY@CGIAR.ORG. All applications will be acknowledged, however only short listed candidates will be contacted.

Apply here https://recruit.zoho.com/ats/Portal.na?digest=T642sgLYWZOStExJ77cPrcM*sIMGZETWw4yPxngbmHA-

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7502/pdf/nature13377.pdf

Address of the bookmark: https://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/virulence/2013VIRULENCE0033R2.pdf

Address of the bookmark: http://www.programmingr.com/category/stype/r-job-listings/

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/soedinglab/metaeuk