Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemical Microbiology

The Role
Within the Next Generation Chemistry theme and in collaboration with the University of Newcastle, one of the aims is to realise the full potential of biological and chemical methods to access “microbial dark matter” by using new culture methods and culture independent (e.g. robotics, direct cloning) methods. This will exploit sensitive and scalable analytical methods for identifying new and known natural products, characterise the biosynthetic pathways of these natural products through chemical biology methods and exploit their products in synthetic and chemical biology. Based on this approach we have already developed methods that allow the generation and/or understanding of natural products and their analogues as antimicrobials [see Cell 2018, 175, 1045-1058, ACS Chem. Biol. 2018, 13, 801–811, Molecular Cell 2018, 72, 263–274]. 

Within this theme, you will expand on these discoveries to explore natural products and the systems that generate them as functional tools and products. In particular, we will explore novel methods for identifying natural products and exploiting both them and the gene clusters that create them.
The project is a collaboration with the University of Newcastle, the University of Oxford and other themes at the Franklin as well as other potential industrial and academic collaborators and experts in the UK and beyond. The post, which is for 3 years in the first instance, reports to the Franklin’s Theme Lead for Chemistry, as well as key academic collaborators and will work alongside other researchers in the Franklin and at partner university institutes including at the University of Oxford (where some groups are jointly based). 

About you
Candidates must hold a post-graduate qualification/PhD (or equivalent experience) in Chemistry, Biochemistry or Chemical Biology, Biology, Biomolecular Science, or related subjects. We are looking for candidates with a demonstrated aptitude for biosynthetic pathway elucidation, experience in microbiological methods, especially culture methods and associated genetic analyses, as well as experience with project management. 

Before submitting your application please ensure you read the Job Information Pack for full details of this role by clicking on the attachment on our website: https://opportunities.rfi.ac.uk/vacancy/postdoctoral-research-associate-in-chemical-microbiology-483351.html  

About us
The Rosalind Franklin Institute is a new national Research Centre, funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation, dedicated to bringing about transformative changes in life science through interdisciplinary research and technology.  

Location: The Franklin is based in Harwell Campus, UK’s innovation hub and well-established as one of the leading science and innovation campuses in Europe.    

Closing date: 1st June at 09:00am 

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Area Scientific

Location Harwell

Period of appointment 3 years fixed term contract