Doctoral student in Biology - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Project description

Insect pheromone production in yeast factories

The PhD project is part of the OLEFINE project funded by EU (Horizon 2020). The overall vision of OLEFINE is to demonstrate the technoeconomic viability and sustainability of biological production of insect pheromones for use as safe and environmentally friendly insecticide substitutes. Biological production of cheaper pheromones will be a market disrupting technology that will allow rapid expansion of pheromone-based pest management products. We have developed a novel technology for biological production of pheromones using oleaginous yeast cell factories, however the strains, fermentation, and downstream processing need to be further optimized to bring the technology to the market. Cost-efficiency and sustainability of the current process will be lifted in this project by optimizing the yeast biocatalyst and by employing innovative fermentation and downstream processing with cascading of resources.

The PhD candidate will be involved in projects aiming at optimization of cell factories for production of specific moth pheromones including the pheromone of the grape vine moth Lobesia botrana.

The project includes (i) elucidation of native and engineered biosynthetic pathways, (ii) gene discovery and characterization, (iii) mutagenesis, (iv) metabolic enegineering, (v) small-scale fermentation, and potentially (vi) field experiments with yeast-derived insect pheromones.

Required qualifications

Master degree in biotechnology, molecular biology or the equivalent.
High motivation and a sincere interest in this particular project is crucial.
It is  essential to have  experience from yeast biotechnology, metabolic engineering, fermentation, pheromone biosynthesis, and GC-MS analysis of volatile compounds.
Analytical skills and interest in bioinformatics and chemical ecology including applied aspects are also requested.

Spoken and written English must be excellent.

Eligibility
Students with basic eligibility for third-cycle studies are those who- have completed a second-cycle degree- have completed courses of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are from second-cycle courses, or- have acquired largely equivalent knowledge in some other way, in Sweden or abroad.

The employment of doctoral students is regulated in the Swedish Code of Statues 1998: 80. Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD-studies may be appointed to doctoral studentships. When an appointment to a doctoral studentship is made, the ability of the student to benefit from PhD-studies shall primarily be taken into account. In addition to devoting themselves to their studies, those appointed to doctoral studentships may be required to work with educational tasks, research and administration, in accordance with specific regulations in the ordinance.

Type of employment
Limit of tenure, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.