PhD Student in Protein Engineering

Job summary

A PhD position is available for a 3-year term focused on engineering proteins that respond to environmental conditions, starting September 2026. The role involves developing antibodies and nanobodies with condition-dependent activity, integrating experimental and computational methods in a project funded by the Villum Foundation.

Qualifications

• A 2-year M.Sc. degree in biotechnology, biochemistry, molecular biology, or protein science.
• Strong experimental skills in molecular biology and/or protein science.
• Excellent communication skills in English.
• Ability to thrive in a collaborative research environment.
• Project management and efficient work skills.
• Strong record-keeping abilities for lab experiments.
• Motivated, curious, and capable of independent scientific thinking.

Responsibilities

• Conduct in vitro discovery and characterization of environment-sensing binding proteins targeting natural toxins.
• Develop and optimize phage and yeast display workflows for antibody/nanobody discovery.
• Analyze data using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics tools.
• Perform biophysical characterization of binding interactions using techniques such as SPR, BLI, and FIDA.
• Evaluate functional toxin binding under varying environmental conditions.
• Integrate experimental data with computational modeling techniques.
• Contribute to scientific publications and identify potential industrial applications.

Skills

• Experience with phage or yeast display technologies, antibody or nanobody engineering, and protein expression/purification is beneficial.
• Familiarity with biophysical characterization techniques, immunoassays, flow cytometry, and NGS data analysis.
• Knowledge of molecular modeling, computational biology, and scripting (e.g., Python) is a plus.

Education

• Applicants must hold a relevant 2-year M.Sc. degree (120 ECTS).

Tools

• Techniques include SPR, BLI, ITC, ELISA/DELFIA, flow cytometry, NGS, and computational modeling tools.