Postdoctoral Fellow - Bionanoscience and Biochemistry

Bionanoscience and Biochemistry Laboratory (Heddle Lab) Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Krakow, Poland

We are now recruiting a Postdoctoral scientist to join our team to design and build DNA-membrane protein nanomachines for use in artificial cells. The project offers the opportunity to gain experience in a new area of synthetic biology, which will become increasingly important in the future. It also offers the chance to work in a dynamic, international team working closely with partners across the globe including Japan and Germany where we have an official collaboration with Max Planck Institute of Medical Research in Heidelberg.

You will join the Heddle lab (www.heddlelab.org), a newly established, innovative lab carrying out ambitious research aimed at designing and building artificial biological nanomachines using DNA, protein and lipid building blocks. We are located in a state-of-the-art laboratory, based at the new Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology, in the beautiful city of Krakow, Poland

 

Details of Project

 The successful candidate will join a project that aims to design and build novel DNA-based nanomachines able to interact with specific proteins and help construct artificial cells. The successful candidate will have the chance to visit collaborator Ilia Platzman at the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. 

 

Your contribution will include:

• 1) Production and purification of liposomes.
• 2) Production of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) using a state of the art microfluidics system.
• 3) Optimization of a microfluidics, GUV production system for interaction with DNA origami and designed proteins.
• 4) Time-dependent measurement of the function of designed DNA/protein based nanomachines inside GUVs
• 5) Working with other members of the team to interact DNA devices with proteins and lipids.
• 6) Separation and purification of modified GUVs and their downstream analyses.
• 7) Structural studies of designed membrane protein complexes (using cryo-EM with experts collaborators).
• 8) Working with microscopists (AFM) and structural biologists to image DNA machines alone and in complex with proteins.
• 9) Working closely as a bridge between the collaborating groups (Poland and Germany).

 
 

Important Dates

Application Deadline: February 28th 2018         

Start Date: April 1st 2018 or as soon as possible thereafter

In the Heddle Lab we offer a dynamic and growing lab that is breaking new ground in bionanoscience and is extremely well-funded. We are housed in a new state-of the-art research centre with access to the full suite of equipment necessary for bionanoscience, biochemistry and structural biology research and work with a network of international collaborators in Europe and beyond.

The project “Merging Programmable DNA Nanorobots and Microfluidics for Orientationally Controlled Delivery of Membrane Proteins to Protocells” is carried out within the TEAM Programme, being a Grant Project of the Foundation for Polish Science funded by the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of Smart Growth Operational Programme 2014-2020 (SG OP), Axis IV: Increasing the research potential, Measure 4.4: Increasing the human potential in R&D Sector.”