PhD position in Dynamic single-cell analysis (1.0 FTE)

Applications are invited for a 4-year PhD study, starting as soon as possible, in the research group of Prof. Matthias Heinemann, (https://www.heinemannlab.eu) at the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute. Please see the position as a postdoc in Dynamic single-cell analysis also: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000985P

The eukaryotic cell cycle is a fascinating research topic. While we know many of the cell biological changes and biochemical control mechanisms, it turns out that there is still so much that we do not understand. For instance, we just recently showed that also metabolism is dynamic during the cell cycle, and a metabolic oscillator might even exert cell cycle control (Papagiannakis et al, 2017, Molecular Cell; Litsios et al, 2019, Nature Cell Biology).

The aspect that we now want to explore within this project is the following: We have recently obtained indication that the rate of protein synthesis is dynamic during the cell cycle, meaning that the ribosome produces different amounts of protein at different moments. Using budding yeast as a model, we now want to unravel the molecular mechanisms that tune the activity of the ribosome as a function of the cell cycle progression.

To this end, we will use highly sophisticated quantitative microscopic analyses with microfluidics as well as different dynamic state-of-the-art perturbation methods, such as the auxin-dependent protein depletion system and optogenetics. Using CRISPR-based genetic engineering, we will also construct different reporter strains that allow us to monitor the effect of the introduced dynamic perturbations.