NOTE: This is a two-year Postdoctoral appointment with the possibility of extension to a maximum of three years.
Job scope description:
We are seeking a dedicated and hardworking Postdoctoral Researcher to conduct research in the field of synthetic biology for biocontainment of genetically modified microorganisms. You will actively participate in research to develop biocontainment circuits in environmentally relevant bacteria and build and screen libraries for protein redesign. This position is in the systems and synthetic biology group in the Biosciences and Biotechnology Division.
In this role you will:
- Conduct fundamental research in microbial synthetic biology for environmental applications.
- Employ state of the art gene synthesis approaches to produce gene libraries.
- Develop high throughput approaches to assay the functionality of protein variants.
- Employ synthetic biology to implement biological circuits in environmentally relevant microorganisms and characterize efficacy in test beds of increasing complexity.
- Develop research plans, generate results, and publish peer-reviewed papers.
- Work with other scientists to write proposals and expand our program into new areas aligned with your expertise and interests.
- Write reports to funding agencies and participate in scientific conferences.
- Pursue independent (but complementary) research interests and interact with a broad spectrum of scientists internally and externally to the Laboratory.
- Publish research results in peer-reviewed scientific or technical journals and present results at external conferences, seminars, and/or technical meetings.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
- PhD in Biological Sciences, Bioengineering, or a relevant field with a strong emphasis in synthetic biology and microbiology.
- Expertise and knowledge in bacterial genetics and physiology
- Experience in engineering bacterial strains for environmental function. This might include design, assembly, and modeling of genetic circuits.
- Experience with high throughput screening/selection methods
- Ability to develop independent research projects as demonstrated through publication of peer-reviewed literature.
- Proficient verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively in a multidisciplinary team environment and present and explain technical information.
Qualifications we desire:
- Experience with microbial evolution approaches (e.g., adaptive laboratory evolution)
- Experience with next-generation sequencing (NGS) execution and/or analysis
- Experience with in silico protein design/engineering and/or directed experimental evolution of proteins
- Experience with gene editing in non-model strains (non-E. coli systems).
- Experience with bacterial signaling systems (e.g., two component systems, quorum sensing systems)
- Experience in bioinformatics and/or proficiency in programming in one or more of the following languages: Python, Julia, C, C++, R, Java, or Matlab