Responsibilities:

The potential candidate will be expected to discover and engineer new biosynthetic pathways to β-lactam antibiotics.

The project will focus mainly on pathways to β-lactams. New approaches will be developed for engineering of β-lactam biosynthesis to produce new types of β-lactams inaccessible by synthesis and thereby reducing the cost of known β-lactamase antibiotics.  The project will apply cutting edge biophysical and cell biology techniques to define fundamental gaps in our knowledge in β-lactamase biosynthesis, e.g. the structure and mechanism of key enzymes in penicillin, cephalosporin, clavam, and carbapenem biosynthesis; (ii) apply the new and existing knowledge to illustrate how biosynthetic enzymes can be combined with advanced organic synthesis to generate new generations of β-lactam and related antibiotics and (iii) explore the isolation of novel β-lactam related natural products from microorganisms present in Oman.

The candidate is expected to carryout out experiments, analyze data, prepare presentations, and manuscripts.

Required qualifications:

The applicant is expected to have the following:

• A PhD level degree in synthetic or molecular biology with focused scientific discipline relevant to synthetic biology.
• Preferred experience in synthesis, cell biology, omics, biophysics, chemical biology, and microbiology.
• Skills in writing research papers, proof reading and editing of manuscripts.
• Skills in funds raising and research proposals writing.
• Strong English language skills.
• Ability to work in a team.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the work comprise the following:

(i)  Penicillin biosynthesis studies and engineering.

(ii) Engineering cephalosporin biosynthesis.

(iii) Understanding the latter stages of carbapenem and clavam biosynthesis.

(iv) Identifying new β-lactam producing strains in Oman.

Position Code: NMSRC_OXU

Application Process: Submit a formal application letter, updated curriculum vitae, list of publications (with impact factor), academic certificates, three letters of references, and contact details in ONE PDF file electronically through the following email: recruit.researcher@unizwa.edu.om

Please note: Position code should be included in the email subject.