Post-Doctoral Position in Biocatalysis

Are you interested in forensic analytical chemistry and looking for a challenging PhD project? Then we may have the ideal position for you! In the Analytical Chemistry-group that is at the forefront in the field of multidimensional separation methods, mass spectrometry and forensic applications of analytical chemistry, we are looking for a motivated PhD student, who under the direct supervision of prof dr Arian van Asten will work on developing novel analytical chemistry methods for the chemical profiling of explosive precursors and for trace transfer and persistency studies of explosives. Your PhD research is part of an EU H2020 project and you will interact with and present your results to the project partners in the consortium led by FOI, the Swedish Defence Research Agency. You will conduct your research in the laboratories of the various Dutch

A Post-Doc position is available initially for 12 months for a project in collaboration with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. The project deals with the screening, protein engineering and application (i.e., study of reaction conditions) of enzymes for the synthesis of chiral amines and amino acids. The position is immediately available and will start as soon as possible.

What are you going to do?

You will work on the generation of new biocatalysts for the synthesis of chiral amino acids and chiral amines. The main part of the project will be: (i) the screening of enzymes already available at the HIMS-Biocat group for the conversion of substrates of interest for the synthesis of intermediates for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs); (ii) the selection of the best enzyme candidates and enhancement of their catalytic activity and stability through protein engineering; (iii) study and optimization of the reaction conditions for the synthesis of the target molecules using the engineered enzymes; (iv) write of scientific reports and manuscripts.