项目介绍

2025年3月12日

A PhD project is available in the group of Prof. Dr. Alexandria (Ali) Deliz Liang in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). Our laboratory works on advanced methods in protein engineering including genetic code expansion. Currently, we are seeking a highly motivated PhD student to work on metalloenzyme engineering with genetic code expansion.

Your responsibilities

The successful candidate will take on responsibilities that approximately follow the experimental workflow below, as well as other PhD program duties.

Expression, purification, and activity characterization for our target enzyme:

• cloning plasmids for protein expression,
• optimizing protein expression and purification methods, and
• develop assays for characterizing enzymatic activity (absorbance, fluorescence, LC-MS).

Genetic code expansion:

• synthesizing non-canonical amino acids,
• cloning DNA libraries for aaRS/tRNA (aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA) engineering, and
• selection and screening of functional aaRS/tRNA pairs.

Target enzyme engineering:

• genetic code expansion for semi-rational engineering of our target enzyme and
• directed evolution using classical and computational methods

Characterization of optimized enzymes:

• application of enzyme activity assays and
• crystallography.

Academic and organizational duties:

• serving as a teaching assistant for introductory chemistry courses (intro chemistry for majors or for biologists),
• participating in group meetings, departmental seminars, and a student chembio seminar series,
• fulfilling group responsibilities (equipment and organizational responsibilities), and
• completing of the PhD requirements for the chemistry graduate school program.

Although no candidate will be expected to have experience in all the fields above prior to joining, an enthusiasm to learn these techniques is essential.

Your profile

Essential:

• A highly motivated student with an MS degree in biochemistry, chemistry, or related field
• Experience with protein expression, purification, and activity assays
• Enthusiastic about learning and applying new techniques
• Enthusiastic about working on an interdisciplinary research project
• Excellent communications skills in English (spoken and written) are essential
• Conscientious and inclusive working style

Highly desirable (one or more of the following):

• Experience in chemical synthesis,
• Experience in directed evolution, or
• Experience in enzyme engineering.
• computation (e.d. densitity functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics (MD), or machine learning (ML))

Beneficial interests:We offer comprehensive training in a highly interdisciplinary laboratory with a supportive research team. Students will be provided the opportunity to learn high-value, interdisciplinary techniques for future careers in academia or industry. Importantly, students will learn to design, perform, and analyze experiments with high scientific rigor and integrity. Additionally, the laboratory is situated centrally in Zurich (Irchel), which offers a diverse and international environment.

Information on your application

Applicants should prepare a single PDF document that includes the following: i) a cover letter describing previous research and motivation for applying to this position, ii) a detailed curriculum vitae, and iii) the names of two people who can supply reference letters.
Please complete the short pre-application questionnaire using the apply button to receive the application link. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until 01 September 2025, so early submission is encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Alexandria Deliz Liang