Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemistry

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemistry

University of York

York, United Kingdom

Role

Sustainable nucleic acids synthesis is a major thrust area within the UK and around the world. The Mukherjee group is focused on developing enzymatic alternatives to address the manufacturing challenges faced in producing oligonucleotides and their bioconjugates. You will work on building a biocatalytic cascade for peptide-oligonucleotide conjugate (POC) synthesis. You will (i) design and generate a library of designer nucleic-acid modifying enzymes for the cascade (building on initial discoveries in our group), (ii) apply one or more biophysical methods, such as microscale thermophoresis, ITC, fluorescence polarisation, single-molecule FRET, to characterise assembly dynamics and (iii) combine high-throughput biochemical assays with MS approaches to assess synthesised POCs and optimise cascade efficacy. You will also have the opportunity to gain supervisory skills by supporting Masters and PhD students, where necessary within the group.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications needed

The postholder should have a PhD (or be about to be awarded a PhD) in biocatalysis, biochemistry, bioengineering or equivalent experience. You are expected to:

• have hands-on experience of enzyme cascades and/or nucleic acid-modifying enzymes;
• have hands-on experience in generating a protein library and protein purification;
• be proficient in biophysical (ITC, MST etc) and biochemical (kinetics) methods of enzyme analysis;
• have a working knowledge of mass spectrometry (LC-MS, MALDI) for nucleic acids or proteins;
• be competent at working both independently and collaboratively;
• have excellent written and oral scientific communication skills with a track record for publication(s) and conference presentation(s);
• be committed to values of equality, diversity and inclusion.