Shaping change: this is what drives us at Forschungszentrum Jülich. As a member of the Helmholtz Association with some 7,600 employees, we conduct interdisciplinary research into a digitalized society, a climate-friendly energy system, and a sustainable economy. We focus on the natural, life, and engineering sciences in the fields of information, energy, and bioeconomy. We combine this with expertise in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence using unique scientific infrastructures.


The group of Björn Usadel at the institute IBG-4 at Forschungszentrum Jülich is a well-resourced, internationally leading lab for plant omics, data integration and biological data science within the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS).


Our research is dedicated to enhancing health-promoting metabolites in plants and to understanding plant stress responses and adaptation. To this end, we combine genome and transcriptome analysis, metabolomics, phenotyping and AI to understand how plant cells, tissues and metabolic networks respond to stress, infection and domestication. Our work focuses on Solanales crops, tea and Camelina sativa.


We are looking for an ambitious plant biologist with single-cell and/or spatial omics expertise who wants to build a visible research profile at the interface of plant stress biology, metabolites, spatial omics and data integration. Depending on experience and career goals, the position can be shaped as a postdoctoral, senior scientist or independence-track role, with a long-term development perspective and strong support for competitive grant applications.


Possible projects include, but are not limited to, the spatial analysis of Cuscuta infection, the cellular basis of stress responses and specialized metabolism in Solanaceae, and the integration of spatial omics with pangenomics and metabolomics to identify regulatory mechanisms that can improve crop traits.


Recent publications:
van Rengs et al. Wild tomato genome assemblies reveal structural variants influencing gene regulation and stress responses. Nature Commun. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74784-5


Demesa-Arevalo et al. Imputation integrates single-cell and spatial gene expression data to resolve transcriptional networks in barley shoot meristem development. Nature Plants (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02176-6


Holst et al. Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model. Nature Methods (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02939-1


Gaccione et al. Graph-based pangenomes and pan-phenome provide a cornerstone for eggplant biology and breeding. Nature Commun. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64866-1


Join our team

Postdoctoral Researcher / Senior Scientist in the field of plant single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
Develop and optimize single-cell/single-nucleus RNA sequencing in plants
Co-develop spatial transcriptomics protocols and analyses with collaborators in CEPLAS
Design and run experiments on plant stress responses, metabolic pathways or plant-plant interactions
Publish and present your results
Develop your own grant proposals, with support from the group and the institute

Hands-on experimental experience working with plants
Master and PhD in plant biology, molecular biology, genomics or a closely related field
Experience with single-cell or single-nucleus RNA sequencing
Experience with spatial platforms is a plus
Experience with bioinformatics pipelines for omics data (e.g. Seurat, Scanpy)
Strong analytical and organizational skills
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams
Excellent written and spoken English (C1/C2 level according to the CEFR )


Plant experience is essential. Beyond that, if you meet most but not all of these points, we encourage you to apply.
We work on highly topical, scientifically exciting questions and offer you the opportunity t...