Postdoctoral Research Assistant in protein engineering and enzymology



Four 2-year Post-doctoral Research Assistants in
Protein Design and Synthetic Biology

Salary: £30424 – £34223

Closing date for applications: 10-Nov-2013

The Woolfson group in the Schools of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bristol has recently been awarded a 5-year grant by the European Research Council (ERC) to explore, understand and exploit a new class of protein structure, namely the alpha-helical barrels (Curr Opin Struct Biol 22, 432-441 (2012)). This work stems from their discovery of a new protein hexamer, CC-Hex (Nature Chem Biol 7:935-941 (2011)).
The aims of this ambitious, multidisciplinary project are broadly: (1) to discover other examples for this class of protein structure (i.e., different sizes of barrel) through de novo design and searches of protein databases; (2) to decipher rules that allow the reliable and predictive design and engineering of new alpha-helical barrels comprising 6 alpha-helices and above; and (3) to apply these rules and the new structures to construct functional barrels with prescribed binding, enzyme-like and channel properties for potential future applications in biotechnology, synthetic biology and healthcare.
To achieve these ambitious goals, we are assembling a team of 4 post-doctoral researchers to cover the following four areas of expertise:

A. bioinformatics and biomolecular modelling;
B. peptide chemistry and biophysics;
C. X-ray crystallography; and
D. protein engineering and enzymology.

Given the scope of the project and the strength of the collaborative team that we have in place at Bristol, these posts offer excellent opportunities to early stage researchers to move into the exciting areas of bionanotechnology and synthetic biology. In the first instance, the posts will be for 2 years, but there is a possibility that funding could be extended for a further 2 – 3 years.
Informal enquires about these positions can be made to Prof Woolfson, D.N.Woolfson@bristol.ac.uk.

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To apply for this post, please click on the Apply button below.

The University of Bristol is committed to equality and we value the diversity of our staff and students.

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