Master Thesis - High throughput technologies for the rational development of microbial cell factories

Your Job:

The construction of industrially relevant microbial production strains is still a time-consuming, costly and labor-intensive process due to the many manual steps involved. This limits the flexibility, throughput and effectiveness of cloning work in the laboratory. The parallelization, automation and miniaturization of these tasks has the potential to significantly accelerate strain construction and generate socially and industrially valuable innovations. The modular assembly of genetic building blocks in high-throughput is the central molecular biology methodology here.

This project aims to develop a standardized cloning library for high-throughput strain construction of C. glutamicum using state-of-the-art strain development methods. This will then be demonstrated in an application example (production of aromatic platform molecules). The focus will be on the plasmid-based construction of synthetic operons using the modular cloning (MoClo) principle. In addition, further improved strain variants can be generated via CRISPR-based genome editing. The approach is based on stoichiometric metabolic modeling for a rational and effective selection of metabolic modification strategies.

Thus, this thesis contributes to the effort to rationalize, standardize and automate strain construction for C. glutamicum. In this way, the potential of metabolic engineering is further advanced.

Your tasks in detail:

• Creation of a modification and strain construction strategy based on modeling data (stoichiometric flow optimization)
  
• Cloning with modern methods of molecular biology (Gibson Assembly, Golden Gate, Modular Cloning)
  
• Construction and expansion of a modular library for (automatable) strain construction
  
• Microbial cultivation in the BioLector microcultivation system and comparison of strain variants using HPLC in particular
  
• Digital documentation of the work carried out and presentation of the results
  
• Optional: participation in metabolic modeling workflow

Your Profile:

• Study in biology, biotechnology, bioprocess engineering or a related discipline in the Master`s program
  
• Interest in metabolic engineering and automation, cloning work and cultivation systems
  
• Experience in metabolic modeling and automation not required
  
• Willingness to familiarize yourself with new methods and topic-related literature
  
• High degree of independence, motivation and reliability
  
• Very reliable, structured and orderly way of working
  

Our Offer:

We work on the very latest issues that impact our society and are offering you the chance to actively help in shaping the change! We support you in your work with:

• An interesting and socially relevant topic for your thesis with a future-oriented focus
  
• Excellent scientific equipment and the latest technology
  
• Qualified and conscientious supervision by scientific colleagues
  
• Interdisciplinary collaboration in a committed and collegial team
  
• Independent preparation and execution of the assigned tasks
  
• Ideal conditions for practical experience alongside your studies
  
• Flexible working hours and appropriate remuneration
  
• A large research campus with green spaces, offering the best possible means for networking with colleagues and pursuing sports alongside work
  
• Flexible work (location) arrangements, e.g. remote work to a degree
  

In addition to exciting tasks and a collaborative working atmosphere at Jülich, we have a lot more to offer: https://go.fzj.de/benefits

We welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds, e.g. in terms of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation / identity, and social, ethnic and religious origin. A diverse and inclusive working environment with equal opportunities in which everyone can realize their potential is important to us.