Postdoctoral Fellowship (12) at University of Helsinki, Finland

The successful candidate will work within the research project “From Clay to Code: Investigating Microbial Evolution in Response to Human Influence” funded by the Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences (HiLIFE). The project aims to establish a scientific foundation for investigating viable ancient bacteria recovered from archaeological ceramics to determine the evolutionary trajectories and adaptation mechanisms of the isolated bacteria under anthropogenic influences.

Advances in ancient DNA techniques have substantially increased our understanding of past human populations, other animals as well as on ecology and evolution of microbial diseases. However, dormant forms of microbes that can persist for extremely long periods of time in the right conditions, may also act as windows to the past. In this work we will compare ancient and modern bacteria with various methods. By integrating the findings with archaeological knowledge, the goal is to elucidate bacterial genetic evolution that was shaped by human influence and make predictions to the future. The work provides the possibility to develop skills in microbiology, data analysis, bioinformatics and molecular dating methods in an international and multidisciplinary setting and gain a competitive academic CV.

Plant growth is not only determined by the plant genotype but also by the presence of beneficial microbes that can boost plant growth by providing access to nutrients, defending plants against invading pathogens, and producing plant growth-promoting hormones. While increasing evidence suggests that phages can shape the composition, diversity and functioning of rhizosphere bacterial communities, we lack an understanding of how these changes are associated with plant health and growth. The main aim of this project is to experimentally study how phages can boost plant growth and to determine the underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms of phage-mediated plant growth-promotion.

Even though phages do not directly interact with plants, they can indirectly affect plant growth by interacting with plant-associated rhizosphere bacteria. For example, lytic phages can infect and kill plant-pathogenic bacterial taxa and reduce their relative abundances alleviating plant disease symptoms. Selective killing of bacterial taxa can also lead to the enrichment of plant growth-promoting bacteria in the rhizosphere, which could result in improved plant growth. Moreover, by killing bacteria, lytic phages release nutrients in the rhizosphere, which could help plants sequester and assimilate resources to support their growth. Finally, temperate phages can integrate into bacterial chromosomes and provision bacteria with additional genes (auxiliary metabolic genes, or AMGs for short) that do not only improve bacterial survival but could also boost the expression of plant growth-promoting functions.

In this project, we will use a highly trackable tomato rhizosphere model system to directly study if phages can boost plant growth by interacting with rhizosphere bacterial communities in the plant roots. Specifically, we will focus on understanding the importance of three key mechanisms of phage-mediated plant growth-promotion: i) Release of nutrients in the rhizosphere due to the killing of bacteria by phages, ii) Selective enrichment of plant growth-promoting bacteria in the rhizosphere by phages, and iii) Provisioning of bacteria with plant growth-promoting functional genes by temperate phages.

We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic postdoctoral researcher with experience in molecular virology, microbiology and metagenomics/metaviromics to join our international team. The candidate should hold PhD degree in microbiology, bioinformatics or related field, and good written and verbal communication skills in English are necessary. The postdoctoral position is for 4 years starting in April 2026. 

The logic and learning (LOL) group is recruiting a postdoc partly funded by the ARC Prize Foundation. You will work with Associate Professor Andrew Cropper. We work on combining logical reasoning and machine learning. We focus on inductive logic programming (ILP), a form of inductive program synthesis which learns logical rules from data.

The focus of this position is to develop ILP/program synthesis methods for the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC) challenge. ARC is a benchmark designed to measure an AI system’s ability to efficiently acquire new skills outside its training data. The focus is specifically on ARC-AGI-3, where systems must learn rules by interacting with their environment.

The research will build on our IJCAI 2025 paper,  where we showed that an off-the-shelf ILP system using raw pixels, only arithmetic, and a single CPU could perform reasonably well on ARC-1. 

Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are increasingly shaped by interactions across ecosystem boundaries, yet the mechanisms linking terrestrial and aquatic communities remain poorly understood. This postdoctoral position is part of the TRACE – Trait Responses Across Connected Ecosystems project (2025–2028), funded by the Research Council of Finland.

The TRACE project investigates how functional traits related to tolerance, movement, and interaction structure communities across connected forest–lake ecosystems. By integrating multi-taxa field data, trait-based ecology, experiments, and advanced statistical analyses, TRACE aims to uncover how ecological processes propagate across blue–green boundaries and shape biodiversity patterns at local to regional scales.

The postdoctoral researcher will play a central role in the project, contributing to data synthesis, statistical analyses, and manuscript writing, while also participating in field-based experiments and supervision of students. Research will be conducted primarily at the Lammi Biological Station, the largest university research station in Finland, located approximately 100 km from the University of Helsinki main campus. The station provides exceptional access to long-term study lakes, well-equipped laboratories, experimental infrastructure, and a vibrant international research community, offering a highly collaborative and scientifically stimulating working environment.

The hired researchers will work as part of the computational aerosol group at INAR. The computational aerosol physics group uses computational and theoretical methods to understand cluster and particle formation for atmospherically relevant molecules.  

ORCTOOL (Organic Cluster Tools) aims to create a toolbox for understanding and cost-effectively predicting the rate of massively multicomponent organic, or organic-enhanced, new-particle formation in the atmosphere. We will combine our molecular-level model development  with machine learning and artificial intelligence methods, targeted validation experiments. The project is funded by The Research Council of Finland. In the first stages of the project the research tasks include test and extend group contribution methods for predicting aerosol-relevant bulk properties such as pure-compound saturation vapor pressures develop suitable representations (descriptors) for both the clusters and their building blocks to facilitate efficient use of machine learning method for predicting cluster stabilities test, validate, and extend the cluster-of-functional-groups approach to predict whether and how strongly the organic vapour enhances clustering of driven by inorganic molecules model cluster formation in ‘clean’ engine exhaust driven by lubricants and their additives, involving also nitric acid formed from emitted NOX,   sulphuric acid as well as catalyst-created ammonia.

We are looking for candidates with a strong background in life sciences (for example, cell biology, biochemistry, mouse models, and/or image analysis). The candidate should be highly motivated to investigate key open questions in the fields of:

• Vascular biology
• Immunology
• Cell Biology

At the postdoctoral level, the candidate should have a PhD degree in appropriate biological or medical subject. The PhD degree must have been obtained no more than three years prior to the application deadline. The three year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave or parental leave. Previous experience in cell biology, vascular biology, mouse models, immunology or high-end imaging approaches is considered an advantage. Candidates should be able to demonstrate abstract thinking as well as the potential to develop and pursue scientific projects in the fields relevant for this call. Furthermore, the candidate should have excellent communication skills in English and the ability to work in an international environment. 

The position involves developing and fitting models on natural selection shaping sex-specific immune strategies to the related empirical datasets of various kinds and from various sources. For this, novel statistical approaches for assessing hypotheses, comparing models and combining different types of data are developed.

This position is part of the interdisciplinary consortium at the University of Helsinki, Sex Differences in Immunity, led by Dr. Avila, which brings together researchers across evolutionary biology, immunology, genomics, demography, and statistics to bridge evolutionary and mechanistic explanations of sex differences in immunity.

The Fagerholm group at the Department of Molecular and Integrative Bioscience (MIBS), Faculty of Bio- and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki seeks to recruit a post-doctoral researcher. This position is part of the interdisciplinary consortium at the University of Helsinki, Sex Differences in Immunity, which brings together researchers across evolutionary biology, immunology, genomics, demography, and statistics to bridge evolutionary and mechanistic explanations of sex differences in immunity.

The Fagerholm group consists of Immunologists, Biochemists and Bioinformaticians working together to understand the molecular mechanisms which regulate immune cell signaling and programming in vivo. We are especially interested in programming of dendritic cells, the main antigen presenting cells of the immune system. Our work is relevant for immune system related diseases such as immunodeficiency, inflammatory disorders and cancer. We use a wide range of techniques such as mouse models, in vivo immune cell functional assays, flow cytometry, cell biology, metabolic assays, imaging and omics-techniques (next generation sequencing).

Applicants should possess a PhD degree in immunology or closely related field, or be close to graduation. An excellent academic record, a deep understanding of immunology, as well as practical experience of immune cell biology, cell culture, omics-methods (RNAseq), flow cytometry, other immunological methods and mouse colony management is required. The applicant should be highly motivated and have the ability to work productively both independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team. An interest in interdisciplinary research is considered an advantage. The position is available until end of 2028, starting as soon as possible. A six month trial period will be applied. We are accepting applications immediately and will continue until the position is filled. The ideal starting date is February/March 2026.