Research Fellow : Coventry, United Kingdom

University of Warwick

Department of Chemistry

Research Fellow

£28,982 – £37,768 pa

Ref: 78284-076
Fixed-Term Contract for 2 years from 1 September 2016 or soon after.

A 2-year postdoctoral fellow vacancy is available in the Gibson Group; funded by an ERC starter grant. The global aim of this interdisciplinary project is to develop synthetic polymer mimetics of antifreeze proteins (AFPs). AFPs are found in many extremophiles but their mechanism of action is not understood, despite their huge number of potential applications in frozen food, aeronautics or to protect cells/tissue during cryopreservation. The GibsonGroup has developed these mimics for cell cryopreservation and regenerative medicine; Nat. Commun, 2014, 5, 3244 and Angew. Chem., 2016, 55, 2801 – 2804.

The successful applicant will join the large research team to undertake the purification and biochemical characterisation of recombinant AFPs and design de novo antifreeze proteins and conjugates. Applicants should possess, or be expected to shortly obtain a PhD in biochemistry, protein biomaterials, structural biology or a related field. You must have expertise in protein purification and characterisation, as well as experience in molecular biology techniques for protein engineering. Chemistry experience would be a benefit but is not essential.

The Gibson Group is extremely well equipped for this research, spread across the Department of Chemistry and Warwick Medical School with our main laboratories in the new £24M Materials and Analytical Sciences building. We have dedicated synthetic, analytical, tissue culture and microbiology laboratories alongside world-class analytical infrastructure including 850 MHz solid state NMR, 700 MHz solution state NMR,MALDI MS etc. From 2016 the group will open a new microbiology laboratory within the Medical School, where this work will take place, with all facilities necessary for protein expression. Work in the GibsonGroup is interdisciplinary with ~ 20 members including synthetic chemists and cell biologists working in parallel.

If you have not yet been awarded your PhD but are near submission or have recently submitted your PhD, any offers of employment will be made as Research Assistant on level 5 of the University grade structure (£28,143). Upon successful award of your PhD and evidence of this fact, you will be promoted to Research Fellow on the first point of the level 6 of the University grade structure (£28,982).

For further details and to apply online please visit our website below.

Minicom users: 024 7615 0554

Closing date: 21 August 2016