Postdoctoral Research Associate in Molecular Plant Science

The Role and Department

The Department of Biosciences at Durham University has around 200 staff and is ambitious and expanding, with an outstanding reputation in research, teaching, and impact. Research is centred around four key themes: 1) ecology, evolution & environment, 2) animal cells & systems, 3) biomolecular interactions, and 4) molecular plant sciences (www.dur.ac.uk/biosciences/research/). There is a lively research culture with many visitors and events, and active and rewarding collaborations with other departments in Durham and with other scientists in the UK and internationally.

As part of this people-driven focus, the department welcomes applicants interested in hybrid working to give staff who can work flexibly and on and off campus.

The Role

The Durham Bioscience Dept is seeking to appoint a motivated and skilled Postdoctoral Researcher in molecular plant science to investigate the biophysics of marine (macroalgal) cell wall polymers under physiological and stress conditions. This is a highly interdisciplinary project, funded under the UKRI Cross Council Responsive Mode Scheme, that aims to uncover the mechanical properties of cell walls in marine macroalgae. The bulk of our understanding of cell walls comes from studies in land plants, but macroalgal cell walls have evolved to deal with rapid and extreme cyclic changes in salinity and hydrostatic pressure and offer novel and under-explored insights into the fundamental architecture and evolution of cell walls and marin e-adapted biopolymers. These insights require interdisciplinary expertise and the project will run across the cross-disciplinary LILACS consortium (‘Looking Inside Living Algal Cell Walls – A Soft Matter Approach’), in which Durham researchers work closely with synthetic chemists at Imperial College London and rheologists at Liverpool University.

The successful applicant will begin by using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches to characterize novel macroalgal cell wall proteins and polymers in the green macroalga, Ulva compressa, which is being developed as a model marine species by Durham’s project lead (John Bothwell), along with colleagues in Gent, Belgium. You will play a central role in leading, devising and conducting original experiments that bring together your molecular plant science expertise with researchers in biophysics, rheology and optical microscopy to design and construct innovative optical microscopy setups that probe how model hydrogels, constructed from the algal biopolymers and components that you have identified, respond to changing e nvironments in real time. Experience with proteomic techniques is therefore essential, and expertise in cell wall polymer extraction, analytical chemistry techniques, or optical microscopy techniques would also be an advantage.

You will be working across traditional disciplines with biologists, chemists, optical and soft matter physicists, and your findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed manuscripts and conference presentations in several disciplines. We value and nurture mentorship, leadership development and collaboration, and you will have the opportunity to contribute to the guidance and supervision of postgraduate and undergraduate research projects. Additionally, there is potential for collaboration with industrial partners to further enhance the scope and impact of your research.

For more detail, please contact John Bothwell (j.)

This post is fixed term for two years as funding is available for that period only.

Successful applicants will, ideally, be in post by ASAP.

When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.

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