Research Fellow

Salary: As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 7, salary £36,130

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to May 2027

Background

We are seeking applications for a 24-month Research Fellow position to work on Dr. Oliver Maguire’s European Research Council Starting Grant ‘Electrochemically Programmable Biochemical Networks for Animate Materials’ and to support all activities in Dr. Maguire’s research group.

Life’s biological materials are animate materials, capable of adapting to their surroundings by actively changing in response to the environment. A key distinguishing feature of animate materials is their ability to autonomously make decisions over how to respond to stimuli. An example of an animate material is your skin: on cold days the hairs on your skin rise to trap warm air without your conscious thought. The ability of living materials to make decisions arises from biochemical reaction networks (e.g. protein signalling) in the material. The networks process environmental information and decide how to adapt the material in response. Artificial animate materials promise to be superior for many applications (e.g. soft robots, MedTech) compared to their inert counterparts as their decision-making abilities will enable them to leverage advantageous events into better outcomes and limit the damage from disadvantageous ones. However, currently, there is not a well-established route to fabricate artificial animate materials.

You will create novel chemical reaction networks out of redox-sensitive proteins and organic molecules that will make decisions in response to electrochemical signals. You will achieve this by combining detailed kinetic studies of enzymatic and organic reactions with modelling to identify the location and scope of the targeted decision-making behaviour. You will demonstrate the full networks under out-of-equilibrium conditions. You will work towards integrating the networks into hydrogels to create actuators which autonomously make decisions about their movement.

The School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham is a vibrant and thriving academic community, with over 110 academic and research staff, 20 professional services staff and over 600 students. We provide an inclusive and supportive environment where we strive to support every member of staff in realising their career potential. With a strong focus on our four Research Themes of Energy, Sustainability, Environment and Health, and a number of interdisciplinary Interest Groups serving as testbeds to explore new and emerging areas of interest, Birmingham is a dynamic place to work. We have ambitious plans to expand our research activity and are in an exciting period of growth: major investment from the University has delivered a state-of-the-art molecular sciences research building. This investment builds on a major recent expansion of our academic staff and investment in our teaching and learning provision, with our Collaborative Teaching Laboratory, which opened September 2018, already revolutionising how we teach undergraduate practical chemistry.

Person Specification

Candidates must have a PhD or be near to completion, in Chemistry or a related discipline.

Informal enquiries to Dr. Oliver Maguire: o.r.maguire@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: 14/04/2025

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