Project Officer (Molecular Biology)

The School of Biological Sciences (SBS) is a school of the College of Science. It was established in 2002 with the mission to make a strong contribution to biological and biomedical sciences. Research areas at SBS include infectious diseases, immunology, neurodegenerative diseases and telomere biology and genome function. Since then, many talented individuals from around the world and Singapore have joined SBS as scientific leaders, and researchers.

We are looking for an enthusiastic Project Officer to participate in an exciting, interdisciplinary project aiming to understand the responses of monocot crops to abiotic stress and predict stress resilience of the crops under these stresses. The Project Officer will be based in the group of Associate Professor Marek Mutwil (https://www.plant.tools/), at the School of Biological Sciences, NTU.

This project aims to generate gene expression, metabolic and phenotypic atlases for ten of the major monocot crops, including Brachypodium distachyon (model crop for monocot). The candidate will cooperate closely with a research fellow to establish stress experiment protocols for the different monocot crops and then isolate RNA and metabolites from these crops. The RNA will be used to study gene expression changes, while the metabolite extracts will be used to identify and quantify the metabolite levels. Physiological changes will be measured with high throughput phenotyping equipment, which you will help design and buold. Thus, this multidisciplinary project will expose the PO/Tech to multiple topics, such as responses of crops to abiotic stress, gene expression analysis, and specialized metabolism.

Key Responsibilities

• Work closely with research fellow to establish experiment protocols

• Isolate metabolites and RNA from the crops

• Characterise physiological parameter from the crops

• Learn bioinformatics and coding in Python to analyze the gene expression data.

• Learn advanced machine learning concepts

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Life Sciences, Biochemistry, Engineering, or related fields

• Successful candidates must have an enthusiasm for research, self-motivated, well-organized, responsible and a fast learner

• Strong team player with good written and verbal communication skills

• Plan tasks independently and demonstrate good troubleshooting skills

• Experience with literature search, designing, conducting experiments, and data analysis will be advantageous

The College of Science seeks a diverse and inclusive workforce and is committed to equality of opportunity. We welcome applications from all and recruit on the basis of merit, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, marital status and family responsibilities, or disability.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Hiring Institution: NTU