Postdoc Cell Engineering Cultivated Meat

Postdoc Cell Engineering for Cultivated Meat

Are you ready to engineer and evolve the next generation of animal cell lines for cost‑effective, scalable, delicious cruelty‑free meat?

‘Cultivated meat’, the production of genuine meat products from in‑vitro culture of animal cells, is an emerging biotechnology within cellular agriculture with the potential to revolutionise food production from both an environmental and ethical perspective. Higher eukaryotic cells in their unmodified state have severe limitations with respect to in‑vitro culture, presenting major challenges for scalability and cost‑effectiveness of cultivated meat bioprocesses, including limited cellular lifespans, slow proliferation rates, demanding medium requirements and a preference for adherent growth.

At the Flack group we are looking for postdoctoral scientists for fully funded projects of an initial 2 years. You will engineer and evolve bovine satellite cell lines with improved phenotypes (e.g., suspension culture, signalling pathway activation, cellular lifespan). Once new cell lines are engineered, you will characterise them with flow cytometry, microscopy and transcriptomics. The scope of the work allows you to propose and lead your own research projects, and includes opportunities to supervise PhD, MSc and BSc students, and to gain experience in grant writing and funding acquisition.

• Engineer and optimise bovine satellite cell lines for cultivated meat production.

• Perform molecular biology, cloning and genetic manipulation (e.g., CRISPR/Cas), and apply gene‑editing techniques.

• Characterise engineered cell lines using flow cytometry, microscopy and transcriptomic analysis.

• Propose independent research projects and collaborate with industry partners and external experts.

• Mentor graduate and undergraduate students and contribute to grant writing and project management.

• PhD in cell biology, synthetic biology or a related field of biological sciences (essential).
• Strong background in molecular biology, cloning and genetic manipulation (essential).
• Prior experience with gene editing and/or cell engineering (e.g., CRISPR/Cas) (essential).
• Expertise with mammalian cell culture desirable; experience in bacterial or yeast engineering also considered.
• Experience in microscopy, transcriptomics or metabolomics highly desirable.
• Strong collaboration, communication and project management skills.

• Duration of contract: 2 years (temporary).
• 36–40 hours per week.
• Salary and benefits in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch universities.
• Excellent pension scheme via the ABP.
• Possibility to compile an individual employment package each year.
• Discounts with health insurers on supplemental packages.
• 232 leave hours per year (at 38 hours); ability to buy or sell additional leave hours via the individual choice budget.
• Opportunities for education, training and courses.
• Partially paid parental leave.
• Health and vitality program support.