Postdoc computational biology and digital twins in industrial biotechnology

Are you interested in the bio-based economy and biomanufacturing? Do you have a computational background in biotechnology and digital twins? If you want to bring your career to the next level by developing computational pipelines for monitoring and predicting microbial performance under industrial relevant conditions, we would like to invite you to apply for this Postdoctoral position within our team!

The Biomanufacturing and Digital Twins Research Theme of the Bioprocess Engineering chair group is hiring a Postdoctoral researcher (2 years, full time-time employment with a possible extension) to become part of the European-funded research programmes BIOS and Bioindustry 4.0. Both projects aim at the deep digitalization and automation of Industrial Biotechnology in our way towards smart biomanufacturing through data fabric, digital twins for bioprocess design, strain discovery tools and decision support systems, advanced process analytical technology devices, and digital twins for bioprocess control.

As a Postdoctoral researcher, you will assist in leading the computational team of the aforementioned projects by contributing to the supervision of PhD candidates and providing high-level research to a number of objectives.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• the creation of a Digital Twin to mimic cells and bioprocesses by intertwining AI and experimental data for robust and scalable biomanufacturing;
• the development and deployment of data-driven approaches, exploiting AI to empower novel decision support systems and digital twins, the latter being to better design bioprocesses and enable their real-time online control. Eventually these models will be employed for self-controlled autonomous microbial production of a number of industrially valuable compounds;
• the development, optimization and exploitation of genome-scale metabolic and other models using experimental data (e.g., omics, real-time measurements) acquired by the ‘wet’ team members of the projects, including bioprospecting and pathway discovery.

You will work with the Professor and the other postdocs leading the team to establish new research lines in the group related to digital twinning and modelling. You will also work with PhD, MSc and BSc students in specific projects and will supervise their theses.

• as Postdoc computational biology you have a high interest in the following research topics: Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle, autonomous biomanufacturing, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering. Besides this, you have:A successfully completed PhD degree in Computational Biology, Computational Chemical Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology and/or Digital Twins, or in a relevant field;
• prior expertise in machine learning and data models with focus on biotechnology;
• excellent programming skills in Python are essential. Knowledge of other programming languages is desired;
• experience in implementing computational methods to bioprocesses;
• experience in genome-scale modeling and omics analysis;
• strong publication record in top-tier peer-review journals;
• problem solving capacities and excellent communication skills (spoken and written).

Next to these must haves experience in programming lab robotics is a plus, as well as a public portfolio of computational projects accessible via e.g., GitHub is considered advantageous.

In our international working environment, there is an increasing amount of communication in English. For this position, it is about language level C1. If you do not yet have this level, we will of course help you and you can go to our language center Wageningen into Languages.

You can see that there are plenty of challenges ahead of you. These challenges can also be seen as development opportunities.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment . A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between €3226,- and €5090,- for a full-time working week of 38 hours, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 10).

Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We offer a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University ” in the Netherlands for the 18th consecutive time.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.

Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research's International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about helping your partner to find a job, housing, schooling. For instance under the "30% rule", certain categories of international staff can receive tax exemption on approximately 30% of their gross salary.

For more information about this position, please contact Sumitha Reddy, Research Manager, Biomanufacturing and digital twins group by email: [email protected] or by phone: +31627965771.

For more information about the procedure, please contact Rutger Voorrips, recruiter, by e-mail: [email protected] .

Do you want to apply?
You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval.
This vacancy will be listed up to and including February 1st, 2024. We hope to schedule the first job interviews shortly after the closing date..

Equal opportunities
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) employs a large number of people with very different backgrounds and qualities, who inspire and motivate each other. We want every talent to feel at home in our organisation and be offered the same career opportunities. We therefore especially welcome applications from people who are underrepresented at WUR. A good example of how WUR deals with inclusiveness can be read on the page working at WUR with a functional impairment .

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,200 employees (6,400 fte) and 13,200 students and over 150.000 participants to WUR’s Lifelong Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

You will work here:
Research in the ‘Biomanufacturing and Digital Twins’ team led by Prof. Vitor A. P. Martins dos Santos focuses on the exploration, development, and implementation of pioneering technologies in biotechnology to facilitate bio-based production, spanning a wide range of biomanufacturing, from bioplastics to pharmaceuticals. The Biomanufacturing and Digital Twins group is embedded in the Laboratory of Bioprocess Engineering, an international, multidisciplinary, and vibrant research group at Wageningen University.

Read 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch this video to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.