Postdoctoral Research Associate in Single-Molecule Biophysics

The Department of Biology and the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology (PET) are collaborating within the University of York Biological Physical Sciences Interdisciplinary Network (BPSInet) to host the EPSRC open fellowship of Prof Mark Leake in a project entitled “The biophysics of mesoscale, reversible, biomolecular assemblies”. This EPSRC project involves research activities at the interfaces between the physical and life sciences, and experiment and theory/computation, at the University of York. This position, based jointly in Biology and PET, will be to develop and utilise a range of single-molecule biophysics approaches in the group of Prof Mark Leake.

Based on strong proof‑of‑concept results from Prof Leake’s lab and collaborators, and preliminary reports from literature, the key aim of Prof Leake’s fellowship is to develop disruptive technology and modelling to determine the physical rules that underpin bio‑liquid droplet formation and use these for industrial exploitation. The research will study “bacterial aggressome” droplets that Prof Leake and collaborators recently discovered, ideal for general study of bio‑liquid phase separation since they can be controllably induced by stress, and re‑engineer droplets for technological gain. The research will combine top‑down and bottom‑up approaches, with state‑of‑the‑art single‑molecule bio‑imaging of experimentally tractable E. coli aggresomes in vivo, complemented by innovative biophysics tools in vitro and semi in vivo.

Role

In this postdoctoral role you will use and further develop home‑built millisecond timescale single‑molecule optical microscopy and biophysical analysis to enable development and application of new biophysics instrumentation for super‑resolution fluorescence microscopy optical microscopy and microfluidics modules. You will also develop, integrate and apply control software and new image analysis code. You will help to further develop and apply home‑written single‑molecule tracking and quantification software. Your innovative research will enable imaging and tracking of a range of fluorescently‑labelled protein and RNA aggresome components in addition to components of other cellular processes associated with aggresomes. Your experiments will involve imaging of live bacterial cells, “semi‑vivo” extracted aggresomes and reconstituted aggresomes in vitro. You will also help to establish new condensate modelling strategies including aspects of molecular dynamics and coarse‑grained simulations. You will combine experimental and computational approaches to quantify aggresome dynamics and microrheology.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

You will have:

• A relevant PhD in the field of Single‑Molecule Biological Physics, or a related subject
• An interest in the subject matter of the project
• Practical experience in design and development of optical microscopy
• Practical experience in millisecond single‑molecule fluorescence microscopy
• Experience of developing single‑particle tracking software
• Practical experience in molecular dynamics simulations
• Attention to detail, a commitment to performing high quality research and a collaborative ethos with a willingness to work positively and proactively with colleagues in other departments and institutions.
• The ability to efficiently meet deadlines, to disseminate research results professionally in written and oral form and have the initiative to plan research programmes.
• Excellent communication skills are essential, and you should be keen to develop project/team leadership skills

Interview date: To be confirmed

For informal enquiries: please contact Mark Leake (mark.leake@york.ac.uk), or the PET Admin team (pet-admin@york.ac.uk).