Postdoctoral Research Fellow; Spinck Lab - Generative Biology Institute

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Spinck Lab) - Generative Biology Institute

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Spinck Lab) - Generative Biology Institute

Employer

Ellison Institute of Technology

Location

Oxford, Oxfordshire

Jul 26, 2026

Life Sciences, Biology

Job Type

Postdoc

Description

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:
Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology;
Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture;
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs.

Welcome to the Generative Biology Institute:

Led by Founding Director Jason Chin, the Generative Biology Institute (GBI) at the Ellison Institute of Technology is tackling the key challenges in making biology engineerable, and thereby unlocking the unrivalled power of biology for the benefit of humanity.

The vision of the GBI is to lay the foundations for engineering biology, and unlock its potential for good. To achieve this, we must overcome two key challenges. First, we need the ability to write in the natural language of biology, enabling the rapid and scalable synthesis of entire genomes with precision. Second, we must understand what to write - determining which DNA sequences will generate biological systems that perform the desired functions.

Addressing these challenges will allow us to harness the full power of biology to create transformative solutions across health, agriculture, clean energy and more.

The Spinck Lab

We are seeking ambitious, creative, and highly skilled Postdoctoral Researchers to join the Spinck Lab  Spinck Lab, led by Principal Investigator Martin Spinck, aims to explore biological evolution in artificial environments to uncover new-to-nature functions, focusing on evolvable self‑assembling biomaterials and their applications in sustainable chemistry and biotechnology. In particular, focusing on the use of the synthetic 61‑codon strain Syn
61, in which three codons have been deleted and can be reassigned to encode diverse non‑canonical amino acids.

Postdoctoral candidates should have experience in synthetic or chemical biology and/or microbiology, ideally with hands‑on work using

E. coli as a model organism. Experience in techniques such as molecular cloning and genetic engineering is expected. Prior experience with directed evolution approaches, including library design, mutagenesis, and the development of screening or selection strategies, would be particularly advantageous. Familiarity with the incorporation of non‑canonical amino acids, the characterization of biomaterials, or enzyme kinetics would be beneficial but is not required.

Candidates should be excited to work at the interface of biology and chemistry and motivated to develop and apply experimental approaches to evolve new biomolecular functions.

• Design, execute, and troubleshoot experiments, including the development of novel methodologies and adaptation of existing techniques to new applications.
• Analyse complex datasets using computational and statistical tools, interpreting results in the context of broader research goals.
• Contribute intellectually to the research direction by identifying opportunities for innovation and refining research questions.
• Prepare and publish high‑quality scientific papers, reports, presentations, and protocols.
• Present research at national and international conferences, seminars, and internal meetings.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams within GBI, EIT, and external partners to advance complementary work streams.
• Build and maintain research infrastructure, laboratory capabilities, and cutting‑edge technologies.
• Mentor and support junior researchers, including PhD students and research assistants.
• Translate research findings into…