Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Scientist to join the Laboratory of Dr Sarah Guiziou, and more generally the engineering biology consortium of the Earlham Institute, based in Norwich, UK. This position is funded by Dr Sarah Guiziou’s UKRI Future Leader Fellowship.
Background:
To improve the sustainability of agriculture in the context of climate change, there is a need for a better understanding of root development and a need to develop tools for its engineering.
Root architectures are essential to the plant to allow efficient access to water and nutrients. Engineering biology provides innovative solutions to engineer root development at a cell type-specific level and in response to environmental stressors.
We developed integrase-based circuits allowing the tracking of the order of gene expression during development at the single-cell resolution in the plant model A. thaliana (Maranas et al, 2024). And we are currently applying this integrase-based technology to develop a dynamic cell-lineage tracing method in plants.
This project aims to develop integrase circuits to engineer root architecture, such as deeper root architecture to reach deeper sources of water (Guiziou 2024). Some Arabidopsis lines have been generated for this project and will serve as a starting point for the Postdoctoral researcher project.
The role:
The Postdoctoral Research Scientist project consists of engineering root architecture via cell fate-specific integrase switches.
This post requires plant biology expertise and/or engineering biology expertise. The post holder will receive training in engineering biology, microscopy, and data analysis as required. The post holder will have the possibility to bring their expertise and ideas to the project and to mentor undergraduate and graduate students.
The post holder will be provided with bespoke training from Earlham Institute’s research faculty, will fully engage in our research environment, and will have access to core skills training and all scientific facilities (e.g. biofoundry, microscopy facility, glasshouse).