The structural BioModeling, BioInformatics & BioProcesses lab of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium (3BIO-BioInfo - Prof. M. Rooman) is seeking candidates for a postdoctoral position.
Research context: The control of the physicochemical and biological properties of proteins is a major biotechnological challenge. Proteins are increasingly used as catalysts for their high specificity and performance in the development of environment-friendly bioprocesses. Moreover, therapeutic proteins, monoclonal antibodies and protein vaccines are key targets in the biomedical and biopharmaceutical sectors. It has now become possible to develop bioinformatics tools for rationally designing optimized proteins with a good level of accuracy, with the notable advantage compared to purely experimental approaches that the number of experiments for validating candidate mutants is drastically reduced (see dezyme.com). Such prediction tools are also applied and extended to get insights into the molecular effects of human variants that cause diseases.
Objective: Design, develop and apply dedicated software for predicting protein stability, solubility and affinity changes upon mutations in the context of rational protein design, and for predicting variant pathogenicity and possible molecular causes of diseases.
Offer: A full time postdoctoral position for 18 months starting in January 2019, financed by the FNRS Fund for Scientific Research, with the possibility of extension through an FNRS postdoctoral research grant or a Marie Curie EC grant.
Required:
- PhD degree in Sciences (Bioinformatics, Bioengineering, Physics, Chemistry, Informatics).
- Good programming and computer science skills (preferably in C).
- Good communication skills in English.
- Good publication record in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Desirable:
- Experience in the area of protein structural bioinformatics and/or machine learning.
Contact: Please submit a 1) cover letter detailing your background and interest in the position, 2) a full C.V. and 3) at least two references (with name, email, address, phone number) via email to Pr. M. Rooman (mrooman@ulb.ac.be).
