Grade UE07: £41,064 to £48,822 per annum
CSE / Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology / School of Biological Sciences
Full time: 35 hours per week
Fixed Term: 18 months
The Opportunity:
We are looking for a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant to lead a project on the biological valorisation of polyester waste-derived feedstocks into high value second generation chemicals. The target molecule has varied applications across the food and flavouring, pharmaceuticals and agrichemical industries. The project will be based in the lab of Dr Joanna Sadler in the Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology (IQB3).
Post-consumer plastic waste is emerging as a promising feedstock for the circular bioeconomy. We and others have engineered de novo biosynthetic pathways in microbial hosts to convert waste polyester-derived small molecules such as terephthalic acid and 3-hydroxybutyrate into higher-value chemical products such as vanillin, catechol and acetone, which are currently synthesized directly from fossil fuels at industrial scale.
This project is part of the UK-Singapore Engineering Biology consortium, Circular Bioeconomy through Engineering Biology Network for Specialty Chemicals, (CIRCBIONET). CIRCBIONET aims to establish a world-class Engineering Biology (EngBio) consortium to catalyse the specialty chemicals industry's transition to sustainable, biosynthetic processes which are embedded within the circular economy by design.
Your skills and attributes for success:
* PhD in an appropriate discipline (e.g. biological sciences, biotechnology, biocatalysis, microbial biotechnology, bioorganic chemistry or chemical biology)
* Experience of engineering E. coli for small molecule production, preferably with expertise in fatty acid biosynthesis
* Experience of bioorganic and/or organic chemistry, including common analytical techniques such as GC/LC-MS, HPLC and NMR spectroscopy.
* Experience of developing, analysing and optimising new bioprocesses
* Enthusiasm for working in a multidisciplinary team at the interface of chemistry and biology
As a CIRCBIONET member, you will have access to training and collaboration from across the international network (UK and Singapore), including opportunities to visit collaborators’ laboratories, engage in interdisciplinary research and innovation, participate in regular online project meetings.
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