Research Associate in Biochemistry/Microbiology

The Moore group at Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London is looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to help develop new-to-nature antifungal natural products using Streptomyces bacteria. You will design and build engineered biosynthetic pathways, edit Streptomyces genomes, and scale production from shake flask to bioreactor, working alongside a collaborative team spanning microbial engineering, fermentation and analytical chemistry.

Fungal and oomycete pathogens cause major crop losses and threaten UK and global food security, and growers have few chemical options because many are being withdrawn due to toxicity, and developmental fungicides typically degrade quickly in sunlight or soil. This project uses biosynthesis to access new-to-nature natural products with specific activity against crop pathogens and improved stability. The project will also involve co-supervision with Prof Tolga Bozkurt, an expert in plant-microbial interactions within the Department of Life Sciences, as well as Dr Marko Storch at the London Biofoundry.

You will join a diverse, collaborative group working on both basic and applied natural product biosynthesis, alongside postdoctoral colleagues on a parallel international project researching marine natural products, while the group also has regular visiting researchers from Brazil, South Korea and Europe. We encourage applicants with a strong background in some, though not necessarily all, of DNA and strain engineering, bioreactor cultivation and protein biochemistry to apply, as training will be provided. The group is also supportive of your own career development, whether towards an academic fellowship or an industry-facing route.

Your day-to-day work will centre on three areas. First, DNA and strain engineering: designing and cloning plasmid libraries, introducing them into Streptomyces by conjugation, and editing the genome with CRISPR-Cas9 or directed evolution approaches to build production strains. Second, bioreactor cultivation: scaling production from shake flask to high-cell-density bioreactor conditions and developing fed-batch protocols, with access to mass spectrometry and proteomics facilities at the London Biofoundry for compound and protein analysis. Third, biochemistry: expressing and purifying biosynthetic enzymes and designing assays to characterise their activity, alongside purification and analysis of the resulting natural products by HPLC, LC-MS and NMR. You will also contribute to lab meetings, publications and grant writing, and will have opportunities to help supervise undergraduate and master's students.

Essential

• A PhD in biochemistry, chemical biology or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience.
• A strong research track record, preferably with first-author publications in international journals.
• Experience in molecular biology and bacterial genetic engineering, including DNA assembly, cloning and strain construction.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and the ability to organise your own work and prioritise with minimal supervision.

Desirable

• Experience in the genetic engineering of Streptomyces or other actinobacteria, including CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and the heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters.
• Experience in microbial fermentation or bioprocess development, including bioreactor cultivation.
• Experience in recombinant protein expression, purification and enzyme assay design.
• Experience mentoring junior researchers, or working with industry partners or on patent applications. We encourage applicants with a strong background in some, though not all, of these areas to apply, as training in the remaining techniques will be provided.
• Experience in analytical techniques such as HPLC or LC-MS for the analysis of small molecules.