The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a range of attractive positions in various subject areas and professional fields. With around 10,000 employees and currently 12 professional apprenticeship streams the University offers an inspiring working environment on cutting-edge research and top-class education. Put your talent and skills to work with us. Find out more about UZH as an employer! Your responsibilities The successful candidate will take on responsibilities that approximately follow the experimental workflow below, as well as other PhD program duties. Expression, purification, and activity characterization for our target enzyme: cloning plasmids for protein expression, optimizing protein expression and purification methods, and develop assays for characterizing enzymatic activity (absorbance, fluorescence, LC-MS). Genetic code expansion: synthesizing non-canonical amino acids, cloning DNA libraries for aaRS/tRNA (aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA) engineering, and selection and screening of functional aaRS/tRNA pairs. Target enzyme engineering: genetic code expansion for semi-rational engineering of our target enzyme and directed evolution using classical and computational methods Characterization of optimized enzymes: application of enzyme activity assays and crystallography. Academic and organizational duties: serving as a teaching assistant for introductory chemistry courses (intro chemistry for majors or for biologists), participating in group meetings, departmental seminars, and a student chembio seminar series, fulfilling group responsibilities (equipment and organizational responsibilities), and completing of the PhD requirements for the chemistry graduate school program. Although no candidate will be expected to have experience in all the fields above prior to joining, an enthusiasm to learn these techniques is essential. Your profile Essential: A highly motivated student with an MS degree in biochemistry, chemistry, or related field Experience with protein expression, purification, and activity assays Enthusiastic about learning and applying new techniques Enthusiastic about working on an interdisciplinary research project Excellent communications skills in English (spoken and written) are essential Conscientious and inclusive working style Highly desirable (one or more of the following): Experience in chemical synthesis, Experience in directed evolution, or Experience in enzyme engineering. Beneficial interests: computation (e.d. densitity functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics (MD), or machine learning (ML)) We offer comprehensive training in a highly interdisciplinary laboratory with a supportive research team. Students will be provided the opportunity to learn high-value, interdisciplinary techniques for future careers in academia or industry. Importantly, students will learn to design, perform, and analyze experiments with high scientific rigor and integrity. Additionally, the laboratory is situated centrally in Zurich (Irchel), which offers a diverse and international environment.
Inserat ansehen