Doctoral Candidate in Biosciences - GreenerRPP MSCA Doctoral Network [DC#6]

We are now looking for a motivated

Doctoral Candidate

to join our Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network project on developing more sustainable platforms for high-value recombinant protein production.

Job description

The GreenerRPP project “Greener, more sustainable platforms for high-value recombinant protein production” is an MSCA Doctoral Network project coordinated by the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). The project will involve extensive collaborations between academic and industrial participants, based in 7 European countries, and it will be supported by Associated Partners in Europe and South-East Asia.

The challenge addressed in GreenerRPP is to markedly enhance the capacity for the production of secreted high-quality recombinant proteins, with a special emphasis on therapeutic proteins (biotherapeutics) and industrial enzymes that are difficult to express. The combined markets are in excess of $330 billion p.a., and the products are of massive significance for healthcare and a sustainable bio-based economy. GreenerRPP will address some of the most urgent outstanding problems associated with these industries.

(1) The project will address the rapidly-emerging issue of 'sustainability' in the biotechnology industry by focusing on improvements in yield and process design that markedly reduce the high current levels of waste, and by helping to deliver industrial enzymes that reduce energy and raw material costs in countless industrial and domestic settings.

(2) To achieve these objectives, we will develop powerful new microbial and mammalian cell platforms that can produce recombinant proteins in unparalleled quantity and quality. The consortium aims to develop a suite of super-producing platforms that bypass long-standing problems in protein production, and which can handle the enormous range of new-format biotherapeutics that are emerging.

(3) A comprehensive training programme will equip GreenerRPP Doctoral Candidates with the interdisciplinary and intersectoral skills required to succeed in these industries. A structured training plan, carried out in full accordance with the current Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions guidelines on supervision will provide the depth and breadth of training needed for Doctoral Candidates to excel in the biotechnology industry.

(4) The programme addresses the reality that recombinant protein production is largely carried out in (or outsourced by) high-income countries, and that the cost and questionable availability of many key products places low/middle income countries at a massive disadvantage. Therefore, this project incorporates a series of South East Asian Institutions as Associated Partners, and we will develop a global network with an extensive knowledge exchange.

GreenerRPP offers a challenging doctoral research training programme of 3 years, which is to be completed with a PhD thesis. All participating groups in GreenerRPP have excellent infrastructure, are well-equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, are highly experienced in the training of doctoral researchers, and promote equal gender opportunities. In addition to hands-on training in multidisciplinary and intersectoral research, we offer extensive transferable skills training through network-wide training events. Each Doctoral Candidate will undertake a 3-months intersectoral secondment with one of the other recruiting organizations or the Associated Partners.

Specifically, this Doctoral Candidate position aims to develop protein cell factories that generate homogeneous and authentic N-termini in the proteins they produce, and to thereby reduce the required production volumes while at the same time achieving higher yields of high-quality less heterogeneous product. The project involves screening and engineering of possible proteolytic systems for the generation of more homogeneous and authentic N-termini for both intracellular and secreted proteins.