PhD Position Project NWO OC XL Metabolism

Microbial cell factories are engineered microorganisms that sustainably produce valuable compounds, from biofuels to fine chemicals. Product pathways in these factories are designed to yield desired compounds, with electron flow control being a critical engineering challenge, particularly for optimizing yield. Redox cofactors like NAD+/NADH play a key role in electron transfer, but their involvement in numerous reactions can lead to unintended effects when adjusting product pathways. Our project focuses on minimizing these effects by separating the pathways and metabolic networks, assigning NAD+/NADH for assimilation and a non-canonical redox cofactor for product formation.

In this NWO-XL project 7 PhD students and 2 postdocs from the VU, Wageningen and TU Delft work together to produce such novel cell factories. The role of this PhD position at the VU is to understand the fitness impact of the redox cofactor engineering, and to test robustness of engineered strains. We combine mathematical models (in collaboration with another VU PhD student) with laboratory evolution and physiological characterisation of strains in E. coli and S. cerevisiae.

Requirements:

A Master in a relevant field, such as microbiology, biotechnology, (bio)physics, or systems biology, or equivalent.

Skills/Qualifications

• Experience in, or affinity with, microbial laboratory evolution and cell physiology
• Experience in, or affinity with, the use of computational methods in biological contexts
• Problem solving
• Independent but willing to ask for help
• Curious
• Communicative in word and text

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

Salary Benefits:

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of € 2.770,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.539,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• your employment contract will initially last 1 year and prolonged to 4 years upon a positive evaluation.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge
• discount on (and occasionally exclusive access to) theater performances and courses at the Griffioen Cultural Center
• contribution to commuting expenses

De Boelelaan 1108