Postdoctoral position in molecular and structural biology of protein synthesis in psychrophilic bacteria

Are you interested in working with research, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a postdoctoral position at Uppsala University.

The Department of Cell and Molecular Biology is divided into seven research programs that all focus on different areas within cell and molecular biology: computational biology and bioinformatics, microbiology and immunology, molecular biology, molecular biophysics, molecular evolution, molecular systems biology and structural biology. The scientific basis of what we do is within ‘biology’, but our research overlaps with other fields such as medicine, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, engineering and physics. The department has over 200 employees with around 60 PhD students. Please read more about the department's work at https://www.uu.se/en/department/cell-and-molecular-biology

The postdoctoral fellow will be located in Suparna Sanyal's research group in the Molecular Biology program https://www.uu.se/en/department/cell-and-molecular-biology/research/molecular-biology/sanyal-lab. The group's research in based on understanding the mechanisms of protein synthesis in bacteria and eukaryotes with a particular focus on antibiotic resistance and preparedness for climatic change. Our publications are available at https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=5eTR4gkAAAAJ.

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Duties
The postdoctoral fellow will study "mechanisms of translation in selected psychrophilic bacteria using fast kinetics methods and high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy". For that, the postdoc will require to reconstruct in the test-tube a minimal translation system of selected psychrophilic bacterium by purifying different components of its translation machinery e.g. ribosomes, tRNA, and translation factors. Experience in gene cloning and recombinant protein expression and purification will be necessary for the project. The postdoc will conduct fast-kinetics based quantitative assays for translation initiation, elongation, termination and recycling. The biochemical analysis will be complemented with high resolution cryo-EM structures. The candidate will also solve individual structure of the translation factors using X-ray crystallography.

Requirements
PhD degree in Molecular biology, Structural biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in the same area. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. 

Those who have obtained a PhD degree within three years prior to the application deadline are primarily considered for the employment. The starting point of the three-year frame period is the application deadline. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc. 

The postdoc must have the following competences 
-    Gene cloning, recombinant protein expression and purification by column chromatography.
-    Enzymatic assay and kinetic data analysis using standard methods of enzyme catalysis
-    Thermodynamics of enzyme biochemistry
-    X-ray crystallography of proteins; crystallization, data collection and structure solution
-    Cryo-Electron Microscopy; sample and grid preparation, data processing using Relion, Cryo-SPARC, Phenix and Coot, Model building and illustration using Chimera and Pymol.

The candidate should be highly motivated to conduct research in an international research environment and communicate the research results to the scientific community.

Proficiency in English is desirable, since the candidate will be reading scientific literature and writing articles in English.

Additional qualifications
-    Experience to work with ribosome or RNA is a merit.
-    The capacity of making scientific illustrations using Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator and BiorenderTM will be considered as a merit.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date is negotiable. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact: Prof. Suparna Sanyal, +46-704250340, suparna.sanyal@icm.uu.se  

Please submit your application by 28 june 2024, UFV-PA 2024/2152.

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