Category: News

** Applications are now closed **

As part of the recently established Max Planck-Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology (MPBC), a post-doctoral Research Associate position is available to develop de novo protein design in bacterial and eukaryotic cells. Funding for this post is available until July 2025.

The position is associated with the protein design laboratory of Prof Dek Woolfson (Chemistry and Biochemistry). The post holder would work in the newly refurbished laboratory for the MPBC, which is housed in the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry and is a shared space with other MPBC researchers associated with the laboratories of Profs Imre Berger (Biochemistry; genome engineering) and Steve Mann FRS (Chemistry; protocell research). As with all projects in the MPBC, it is anticipated that the work will develop in collaboration with our Max Planck partners in Germany.

The position would be best suited to a talented and ambitious early career researcher with an interest in applying de novo protein design in synthetic and minimal biology. Essential skills for this role would include: experience in molecular cell biology in bacteria and/or eukaryotes, including the design and expression of synthetic genes in E. coli and/or HeLa cells or similar; plus biochemical and biophysical characterisation of proteins in cells using light and electron microscopy and/or FACS. Experience in the de novo design, synthesis, and structural characterisation of synthetic peptides and proteins would be desirable, but it is not essential for this post.

Additional info

• More information, including the job description and how to apply, is available here.
• For informal enquiries, please contact Dek Woolfson via email: d.n.woolfson@bristol.ac.uk
• The closing date for applications is 20 March 2022. 

A Max Planck-led team of international scientists with an interest in protoliving technologies, has recently published research which paves the way to building new semi-autonomous devices with potential applications in miniaturized soft robotics, microscale sensing and bioengineering.

In a series of experiments, the researchers successfully embedded tens of thousands of artificial cell-like entities (protocells) within helical filaments of a polysaccharide hydrogel to produce tiny free-standing springs that are chemically powered from within.

Professor Stephen Mann, co-Director of the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology (MPBC) at Bristol, said: “We have a longstanding interest in protoliving technologies. One key challenge is how to interface protocell communities with their environment to produce functional relationships. The new work provides a step in this direction as it illustrates how endogenous chemical processes can be coupled to their energized surroundings to produce a programmable chemo-mechanical micro-system”.

Building stripped-down versions of life using protocells, genome delivery systems and synthetic cytoskeletons comprise some of the groundbreaking research due to take place at a new Centre launched at the University of Bristol on Wednesday 27 March. The Max Planck-Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, a partnership between the University of Bristol and the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG) in Germany, aims to advance the future of health and medicine by understanding the fundamental nature of life.

Minimal biology is a new emerging field at the interface between the physical and life sciences. It aims to design and build artificial cells, minimal genomes, virus-like nanodevices and new cellular scaffolds, and seeks to understand the foundations of life and how it arose from non-living matter.

Led by Bristol Professors Imre Berger (Biochemistry), Stephen Mann (Chemistry) and Dek Woolfson (Chemistry and Biochemistry), and Professors Joachim Spatz (Heidelberg), Tanja Weil (Mainz) and Petra Schwille (Munich) at Max Planck Institutes in Germany, the Centre will be based in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. A paramount objective is to train early career scientists in minimal biology and biodesign.

The partnership was solemnised by the signing of contracts by Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol, and Professor Martin Stratmann, President of the Max Planck Society, at an inauguration event attended by around 100 delegates.