Postdoc in Modularization and Rewiring of Bacterial Metabolism

Your job

As a Postdoc you will perform research in an innovative project on rewiring bacterial metabolism through genetic engineering. In this project you will modularize the central metabolism in the model bacterium Escherichia coli to allow for faster swapping of key metabolic pathways, including the implementation of alternative glycolytic routes. This research project connects two Dutch research consortia working at the forefront of synthetic biology: the NWO-gravitation consortium “Building a Synthetic Cell” (www.basyc.nl) and the NWO-XL project “Control of electrons in microbial metabolism”. Within these consortia your work will also involve collaborating with PhD candidates and other postdocs at Wageningen University and TU Delft.

Daily supervision will be provided by Dr. Nico Claassens (WUR) and you will be coached and advised also by Prof. John van der Oost (WUR), Prof. Ruud Weusthuis (WUR) and Prof. Pascale Daran-Lapujade (TU Delft).

This postdoc project gives you an unique opportunity to gain and improve skills in combining advanced genome engineering techniques with synthetic metabolism research. This work will enable you to further develop your academic profile and research network given the research consortia you will be part of.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• conducting molecular biology experiments for the modularization of central metabolic pathways and potentially other modules in E. coli;
• phenotypic characterization of modularized E. coli strains by cultivation, genomics and proteomics techniques;
• reporting and presenting your work within the group and at consortium meetings;
• drafting manuscript for peer-reviewed papers;
• presenting your work at international conferences;
• supporting teaching activities at the Laboratory of Microbiology (max. 10% of your time).

Your qualities

You are an ambitious scientist with a PhD degree metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, molecular microbiology or related fields, who likes to work in challenging and novel synthetic biology projects. You have the ambition to make an impact in this scientific field and contribute to a fun and organized working environment with your colleagues.

You also possess:

• good academic writing skills;
• good supervision and cooperation skills to supervise BSc and MSc students as well as assisting in the supervision of PhD candidates;
• experience in molecular cloning techniques (e.g. Golden Gate assembly);
• preferentially you have experience in genome engineering of the bacterium Escherichia coli;
• optionally you have skills in proteomics analyses, and/or in metabolic modelling.

In our international working environment the communication is generally in English. For this position language level C1 would be required. If you do not yet have this level, we will of course help you and you can go to our language center Wageningen in’to Language
You can see that there are plenty of challenges ahead of you. These challenges can also be seen as development opportunities. So if you do not yet have the track-record required in the vacancy, but do have solid work experience, we would also like to invite you to apply.

We offer you

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between € 2960,-. and € 4670,-. for a full-time working week of 38 hours, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 10).

Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University” in the Netherlands for the 18^th consecutive time.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.
Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research’s International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about helping your partner to find a job, housing, schooling. For instance under the “30% rule”, certain categories of international staff can receive tax exemption on approximately 30% of their gross salary.

Do you want more information?

Do you want more information?
For more information about this position, please contact Nico Claassens, assistant professor, +31317488127 or by e-mail: nico.claassens@wur.nl.
For more information about the procedure, please contact Rutger Voorrips, recruiter, by email: rutger.voorrips@wur.nl.
 
Do you want to apply?
You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval.
This vacancy will be listed up to and including Monday May 1^st 2023. We hope to schedule the first job interviews on May 15^th 2023.
 
Equal opportunities
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) employs a large number of people with very different backgrounds and qualities, who inspire and motivate each other. We want every talent to feel at home in our organisation and be offered the same career opportunities. We therefore especially welcome applications from people who are underrepresented at WUR. For more information please go to our inclusivity page. A good example of how WUR deals with inclusiveness can be read on the page working at WUR with a functional impairment.

We are

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,200 employees (6,400 fte) and 13,200 students and over 150.000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

You will work here:
You will be part of the Microbial Synthetic Metabolism team in the Bacterial Genetics group at the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University, but also work with partners at the Microbial Biotechnology group at the Laboratory of Bioprocess Engineering and the Industrial Biotechnology group at TU Delft.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch this video to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.