Research Fellow

Salary: As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 7, salary £36,924.

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to August 2028 

Background

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) enables the spread of pathogenicity genes between microbes and can therefore drive the emergence of novel diseases. Recent work has uncovered a novel group of giant transposons called Starships, which have moved virulence, metal tolerance and other fitness associated genes horizontally between fungal species. This post-doctoral role is associated with Dr. McDonald’s UKRI Future Leader Fellowship, and will explore the biochemistry of the Starship transposases. These transposases are the enzymes responsible for mobilising Starships within fungal genomes. This project aims to establish a novel set of biochemical assays to study Starship transposases ability to bind DNA and the affinity for specific sequences and to test in what capacity these enzymes can be engineered for new functions.

You will be supported by the generous consumables budget associated with the Fellowship and mentorship of several structural biology focused groups within the School of Biosciences. The Fellowship also support generous conference travel, an EMBO training workshop and international placement with a collaborating lab. The McDonald lab is situated within the Institute of Microbiology and Infection and Plant Sciences within the School of Biosciences. We are highly encouraging of collaborative interactions between groups.

Role Summary

• Applicants will have a PhD (or near to completion) in Biochemistry, Protein Engineering, Structural Biology or Sythetic Biology or Related Field
• Applicants will have a track-record of scientific output including peer-reviewed publications, or if a recent graduate pre-prints or papers under-review
• You will be responsible for the design novel experimental tools to test and quantify the mobility of Starship transposons in both in vitro and in vivo systems
• You will be familiar with protein expression and purification to help characterise the transposase DNA binding capacity
• You will explore the structure and function of the transposase using biochemical assays (DNA-binding, sequence specificity, structural modelling, X-ray crystallography)
• You will explore design new assays to study the uses of transposases outside of the native host (i.e. genome engineering)
• Be enthusiastic about co-supervising a dedicated PhD student who will be appointed to support the project
• Disseminate research findings through peer-reviewed publications and scientific conferences
• You will be encourage to apply for independent grants, Fellowships to establish your own track-record in funding and establish independence with support from Dr. McDonald. 

Person Specification

• PhD (or near to completion) in Biochemistry, Structural Biology or Molecular Biology
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones 

Informal enquiries can be made to Megan McDonald, email: m.c.mcdonald@bham.ac.uk 

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment
We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

Closes: 01/01/2025

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