PhD student Microbial Metabolism; Fermentation of plant-based protein

More than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the food production chain. Replacing animal proteins in our diets with plant-based alternatives should drastically reduce these emissions. Plant-based diets are also healthier. However, current plant-based alternatives to dairy and meat do not have the desired taste, texture or nutritional value yet. Fermentation is a promising technology to improve this issue, but currently the improving of products by fermentation is still based primarily on trial and error due to a lack understanding of the underlying biochemistry. The FERMI project will improve the predictability of fermentation processes to find the optimal production method for tasty, healthy and sustainable plant-based foods.
This PhD position is centered on optimizing and predicting fermentation outcomes. This includes identifying and screening diverse organisms, generating omics data and apply advance data analysis. Eventually we will identify relevant enzymes and pathways for plant-based fermentations and predict microbial behaviour of single and mixed cultures.

Your duties

• design and carry out experiments with state-of-the-art analysis in the field of molecular microbiology, omics technologies, systems biology and bioinformatics
• data analysis and interpretation
• give scientific presentations internally and at scientific meetings
• writing scientific publications leading to a dissertation
• supervising bachelor and master students
• teaching students

Requirements:

• degree in MSc, specializing (molecular) microbiology, biotechnology, biochemistry, bio(physics), systems biology or related
• experience in working a microbiological or biochemical laboratory
• Strong interest in metabolism, high throughput microbiological technologies and pathway analysis;
• excellent planning, analytical and writing skills
• good team worker

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 € 2.872,00 and maximum € 3.670,00 gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

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
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

De Boelelaan 1108