Research Fellow in Sustainable Fermentation-based Proteins

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge?

Do you have an established background in food biotechnology and interests in designing novel alternative protein-based food products with optimized nutritional value, texture, healthier and simultaneously sustainable and clean label?

Are you passionate about developing multidisciplinary research?

Are you interested to explore the innovation potential of a scientific discovery to bring the research to marketplace by working with food industry stakeholders?

Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities?

We are looking for an Innovate UK-funded Research Fellow to join a highly dynamic, interdisciplinary team; focusing on the development of an unprecedented low-emission, indulgent, highly structured protein and vitamin enriched yeast-based "whole-cut" food product, to answer consumers’ and market demands, while boosting the reduction of food loss and freshwater usage by promoting the recovery of vegetable retailers' side-streams. You will actively collaborate with experts in the School of Food Science and Nutrition from food engineering, fermentation science, biopolymer science including colloids and functional nanomaterials design, and with commercial food industrial stakeholders (large as well as small-scale industries).

You will work on the development of microbial based texturized novel proteins, using precise-fermentation technology to make it more sustainable and healthier than the traditional proteins (meat, plants) and characterize the product chemically and physically. Furthermore you will test the feasibility of upcycling vegetables loss to formulate a growth media for the microorganisms, lowering production costs and promoting circular economy. This will involve integrating microbial fermentation optimization, functional biopolymer scaffold design and characterization, nutritional evaluation knowledge, advanced imaging and other colloid science techniques to gain mechanistic and structural information on the complex of microbial biomass and biopolymer scaffold.

You will have a PhD (or have submitted your final thesis) in Food Science, Biotechnology, Biopolymer Science, Microbiology, Biophysics, Biochemistry, or a related discipline, and extensive knowledge and experience of biophysical and biological properties of biopolymer-based soft material (namely bio-polysaccharides). You will also have a positive approach to collaborative research and the drive to make a significant contribution to make this ground breaking project a success.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Dr, Célia Ferreira, Lecturer on Analytical Biochemistry 

Email: [email protected]

Location: Leeds - Main Campus

Faculty/Service: Faculty of Environment

School/Institute: School of Food Science & Nutrition

Category: Research

Contract Type: Fixed Term (19 months - to complete a specific task or time limited work)

Downloads: 

Further details: Candidate Brief