PhD fellowship/scholarship, Investigating how oxygen-limitation affects the secondary metabolism of bacteria

Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Biological and Chemical Engineering programme. The position is available from 1 August 2025 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title:
Investigating how oxygen-limitation affects the secondary metabolism of bacteria

Research area and project description:
Natural products produced by bacteria is a valuable source for medicinally relevant compounds, but the genetic potential for new compounds is often much higher than what is observed when cultivating the bacteria in laboratory settings. This project’s aim is to investigate how the secondary metabolism of bacteria is affected by stress caused by oxygen limitations. The student candidate will use bioreactors to control cultivation conditions and investigate the transcriptional response through transcriptomics and potentially DAP-seq.

The study will be based on already established work on a model strain but expand to other relevant bacteria guided by bioinformatics. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the lab of Gilles van Wezel at the Institute of Biology at Universiteit Leiden and the student will likely be visiting Leiden as part of the project.

Project description: For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:
Applicants to the PhD position must have completed four years of study in a relevant field (Biotechnology or similar) before starting. The student must have good communication skills, demonstrated through either teaching or outreach. Prior work or knowledge within natural product biosynthesis will be considered positively.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Gustav Wieds Vej 10, 8000 Aarhus C., Denmark.

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

• Thomas Tørring, [email protected] (main supervisor)

How to apply:
Please follow this link to submit your application.

Application deadline is 1 February 2025 at 23:59 CET

Preferred starting date is 1 August 2025

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide.

Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.