Research Associate in Genetic Engineering of Microbiomes

Manchester, Greater Manchester, M1 7DN
£37,694 to £46,049 per annum, depending on relevant experience Contract NEW Working within Manchester Institute of Biotechnology under the supervision of Professor Neil Dixon, the post is funded by the BBSRC strategic Longer and Larger grant "Rules of life in CO2-driven microbial communities:
Microbiome engineering for a Net Zero future". In this project we will deploy state of the art metagenomic engineering tools to permit in situ genetic augmentation to modify microbiome function. The long-term global is that these engineered microbiomes will support the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy and carbon-negative production of chemicals. You will be responsible for conducting research under the supervision of Profs Dixon and Nixon to engineer the microbial communities from hot springs that successfully grow on CO2 and H2.

You will be responsible for the design and deployment of CRISPR-based microbiome engineering tools, to both isolate individual community members for analysis and to augment the entire microbiome community with modified functions. These isolates and augmented communities will phenotyped and further adapted under batch cultivation experiments and continuous cultivation studies using flow through bioreactors. You will work closely with other postdocs and PhD students in this project, who will be applying complimentary approaches to the same systems (including metabarcoding, metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing approaches, as well as multi-species metabolic modelling).

You will also be supported by senior technical specialists.

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit. Our University is positive about flexible working you can find out more here Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.