PhD Position Metabolic Engineering Cultivated Meat NL, CD

PhD Position Metabolic Engineering for Cultivated Meat

Are you ready to engineer metabolic pathways to develop the next generation of animal cell lines for cost-effective, scalable, delicious cruelty‑free meat?!

Job description

'Cultivated meat', the production of genuine meat products from in‑vitro culture of animal cells, is an emerging biotechnology within the field of cellular agriculture with the potential to revolutionise food production from both an environmental and ethical perspective. Unfortunately, mammalian cells in their unmodified state have severe limitations with respect to in‑vitro culture, presenting major challenges for the scalability and cost‑effectiveness of cultivated meat bioprocesses.

These include slow proliferation, expensive medium requirements and suboptimal metabolic efficiency.

Metabolic engineering, the controlled reprogramming of metabolism through the modification of existing pathways, and the addition of new ones, offers a potential solution! We are hiring for a PhD student to join the group for a fully‑funded project of 4 years. Within the Flack group, you will develop tools and methods for metabolic engineering of bovine satellite cell lines, and use these to introduce new and improved metabolic phenotypes relating to (for example) efficiency of carbon‑substrate utilisation and de novo synthesis of currently essential, expensive medium components.

Within the broad scope of metabolic engineering for cultivated meat, there will be freedom to direct your own research projects, and to become acquainted with new techniques and approaches. There will be opportunities to supervise MSc and BSc students in the group. Advice and discussion will be available for candidates interested in both academic and industry careers. We are a friendly, collaborative group and are looking for a highly motivated student with strong scientific communication skills.

You will be joining a dynamic department with broad interests in biotechnology and synthetic biology across all domains of life.

The research is funded as part of the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Open Calls Programme, and will involve collaboration and coordination with various industrial parties and external experts.

For more information, please refer to the Flack Group website and/or get in touch.

Job requirements

The ideal candidate will be an ambitious, proactive, reflective, and results‑driven researcher. We are looking for the following:

• MSc degree in a relevant field, such as cell biology, biotechnology or a related field of biological sciences (essential).

• Prior lab experience in molecular biology, cloning and genetic manipulation (essential).

• Prior experience with gene editing and/or cell engineering (e.g. CRISPR/Cas or related techniques – highly desirable).

• Prior experience with animal cell culture (desirable but not required).

• A strong interest in both metabolism and cellular agriculture/cultivated meat is essential, although specific prior experience in these areas is not expected or required.

• Strong collaboration, communication and writing skills.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world‑famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem‑solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale.

That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Applied…