Scientist, Photosynthesis Assay Development - Plant Biology Institute

EIT
- Ellison Institute of Technology

Oxford, United Kingdom

EIT is seeking a highly motivated and skilled Scientist in Photosynthesis Assay Development to join the 'Yield and Photosynthesis' programme. This initiative aims to increase sustainable agricultural output from existing farmland by developing crop varieties with higher yield and greater resilience to a changing climate.

The successful candidate will develop and apply experimental platforms to evaluate the effects of engineered protein variants on photosynthetic efficiency, photoprotection and carbon assimilation. By combining transient plant expression systems, molecular biology, and advanced photosynthetic phenotyping, this work will accelerate the identification and validation of proteins capable of improving crop productivity. The ultimate goal of this research is to deliver transformative improvements in agricultural productivity and resilience, enabling farmers to achieve greater yields from existing agricultural land while reducing the environmental footprint of food production.

The main responsibilities of the successful candidate will be to develop, optimise, and scale experimental platforms for evaluating the effects of engineered protein variants on photosynthetic performance. Successful delivery of these research objectives will require expertise in developing and applying robust photosynthetic phenotyping assays, plant expression systems, molecular biology, and plant biochemistry. The successful candidate will apply strong experimental design and troubleshooting skills to establish robust, reproducible and scalable workflows suitable for high-throughput evaluation of candidate proteins.

Insights generated from this work will directly inform go/no-go decisions for downstream crop transformation and validation.

The successful candidate will work closely with computational scientists, protein engineers, and plant biologists to translate candidate variants into experimentally testable hypotheses. This role offers a unique opportunity to develop innovative photosynthetic phenotyping platforms for crop improvement while collaborating across multidisciplinary teams to drive innovation from lab to global impact.

The scientist will be expected to contribute to publications and IP generation and play an active role in translating research into real-world and commercial solutions aligned with EIT's mission of humane technological advancement. This is an exciting opportunity to perform cutting-edge research in a dynamic, well-supported, and purpose-driven environment.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate cutting edge research techniques into experiments.
• Support the photosynthetic characterization of transformed crop plants as candidate traits progress through the validation pipeline.
• Present scientific work at seminars within the team and at external meetings, including contributing to institute-wide discussions on developments within the field.
• Collaborate with experts at the forefront of research on AI, automation, and generative biology across the EIT ecosystem.
• Draft scientific papers and contribute to preparation of publications.
• Assist in the translation of scientific results into commercial opportunities consistent with the EIT humane endeavours.
• Recognise and act on opportunities for the creation of IP and cooperating in patent protection and in impact delivery.

• Completed PhD in plant physiology, plant molecular biology, plant synthetic biology, plant biochemistry, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience measuring photosynthetic performance using chlorophyll fluorescence approaches, including PAM fluorometry and interpretation of parameters such as PSII efficiency, electron transport rate (ETR), non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and related photosynthetic traits.
• Demonstrated experience measuring photosynthetic performance across one or more photosynthetic systems (e.g. intact plants, leaf discs, plant cell cultures, algae or cyanobacteria).
• Experience designing robust, reproducible and scalable experimental workflows for evaluating photosynthetic traits.
• Strong proficiency in molecular biology, including PCR, primer and construct design, molecular cloning, nucleic acid and protein extraction, gel electrophoresis and immunodetection.
• Excellent skills in experimental…