Scientist, Enzymology - Plant Biology Institute

EIT
- Ellison Institute of Technology

Oxford, United Kingdom

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) is seeking a highly motivated and skilled Scientist in Enzymology 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 play a central role in developing and optimising high-throughput enzyme assays to characterise plant protein variants identified through evolutionary-guided discovery, AI-assisted protein design, and other trait discovery approaches.

Working closely with computational scientists and the EIT AI and Robotics Institute, they will establish robust, scalable workflows for protein expression, purification and biochemical characterisation, while helping to develop automated laboratory pipelines that accelerate the identification and optimisation of improved proteins for crop enhancement. 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 design, develop, and optimise high-throughput enzyme assays for the quantitative characterisation of protein variants. Successful delivery of this research objective will require expertise in enzyme assay development, protein expression and purification, biochemistry and data analysis. The successful candidate will apply strong experimental design and troubleshooting skills to develop robust, scalable and reproducible assay platforms using simple, reliable plate-based readouts suitable for high-throughput screening and automation.

Insights generated from this work will directly inform iterative cycles of protein engineering and go/no go decisions for in vivo validation, with the goal of generating higher yielding crops that are resilient to our changing climate. The successful candidate will work closely with computational scientists to translate in silico protein design, AI-guided predictions and trait discovery outputs into experimentally testable hypotheses.

This role offers a unique opportunity to develop cutting-edge biochemical characterisation technologies at the interface of enzymology, protein engineering and plant science. The successful candidate will serve as a key scientific contact for EIT's AI and Robotics Institute, working closely with automation engineers, roboticists and AI researchers to design, implement and optimise automated workflows for protein expression, purification and enzyme assays.

Working within a highly multidisciplinary team, they will help establish experimental platforms that integrate automation, computational design and biochemical validation to accelerate protein optimisation. 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 EITʼs 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 experts at the forefront of AI and automation to develop high throughput biochemical workflows.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate emerging technologies into enzyme characterisation pipelines.
• Design, implement, and optimise enzyme assays for quantitative evaluation of protein activity.
• Develop robust protein expression and purification workflows to support biochemical characterisation at scale.
• Analyse and interpret enzyme kinetic data to identify high-performing protein variants and guide iterative protein engineering.
• Present scientific work at seminars within the team and at external meetings, including contributing to institute-wide discussions on developments within the field.
• 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.