The Postdoctoral Research Associate will be based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) working on engineering new pathways to antibiotics to combat emerging resistance and to treat neglected diseases. The project will be supervised by Professor Jason Micklefield and is in collaboration with Professor Perdita Barran.
You will have a strong background in enzymology/biochemistry and/or microbial genetics which is relevant for biosynthetic pathway engineering in Streptomyces or related bacterial strains. You will also possess expertise/knowledge in enzyme engineering and in the genetic manipulation of biosynthetic/metabolic pathways. Some knowledge of bioinformatics and structural biology would also be beneficial.
New antibiotics are urgently required to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and to treat neglected tropical diseases (NTD) in the developing world. Most antibiotics used in the clinic are derived from secondary metabolites (SM), also known as natural products, typically produced by microorganisms. For example, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology was awarded for the discovery of avermectin and artemisinin (both SM), which are widely used to treat river blindness and malaria in the developing world. Many SM have been isolated which have excellent antimicrobial activity, but possess undesirable properties (e.g. toxicity, low solubility or bioavailability) limiting their clinical utility. To address this, we will develop new approaches for discovering and engineering pathways to optimized antibiotics that are needed to combat AMR and treat NTDs.
Selected relevant publication:
Nature 2021, 593, 391–398 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03447-w);
Nature Catalysis 2021, 4, 385–394 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-021-00603-3);
Nature Catalysis 2018, 1, 977–984 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0178-2);
Nature Commun. 2016, 7, 11873 (https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11873);
The School of Chemistry is strongly committed to promoting equality and diversity, including the Athena SWAN Charter for gender equality in higher education. The School holds a Silver Award which recognises their good practice in relation to gender; including flexible working arrangements, family-friendly policies, and support to allow staff to achieve a good work-life balance. We particularly welcome applications from women for this post. Appointment will always be made on merit. For further information, please visit http://www.chemistry.manchester.ac.uk/about-us/athena-swan/
Happy to talk flexible working.
Please note that we are unable to respond to enquiries, accept CVs or applications from Recruitment Agencies.
Name: Professor Jason Micklefield.
Email: jason.micklefield@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 306 4509
Email: hrservices@manchester.ac.uk
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