PhD Fellowship - GlycoNoVi

We are looking for a PhD fellowship to join the Inbiose team in Ghent, Belgium.

About Inbiose

Inbiose is specialized in the development of biotechnological processes for the production of specialty carbohydrates. It started as a spin-off from the Ghent University and has grown over the last years to a company of more than 50 employees. More information about Inbiose can be found on www.inbiose.com.

 About the job

This PhD is part of a larger European project aiming to understand the role of glycans in Norovirus infections and how they could be used for novel therapeutic approaches (https://www.glyconovi.eu/application/). One class of glycans that holds great potential are the histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) and therefore the objective of this PhD is to build a library of well-defined high-purity HBGA glycans that will be used within the project to study their impact on noroviruses. Bioinformatics searches coupled with wet-lab screening will be used to identify novel glycosyltransferases that can functionalise core glycan structures and the best enzymes will be taken further into enzymatic and fermentative synthesis routes to obtain glycans in amounts sufficient for small scale purification. The synthesised glycans will in turn be used to study the interaction with norovirus proteins and virus-like particles during secondments at the universities of Seville and Lübeck.

The project is funded by the EU within European Union’s Horizon Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01).

 Your profile

• You have a MSc in Bioscience Engineering, (Bio)Chemistry, Biotechnology, Biology or equivalent

• You have hands-on experience in molecular biology, biocatalysis, protein production and (small scale) fermentation

• You are proficient in data analysis and visualisation (R, python, … )

• You take initiative to work independently and you evince creative thinking

• You can present ideas and cooperate with other teams

• Knowledge of carbohydrates, glycobiology, protein engineering and/or bioinformatics is a plus

• Knowledge of scientific software and tools for gene design, cloning, sequence analysis, structure analysis, …  is advantageous

 Eligibility criteria

• No previous PhD

• Not resided or carried out main activity (work, studies, … ) in Belgium for more than 12 months during the 3 years immediately before the start of the PhD

• Proficient in written and spoken English

 Application requirements

• Cover letter, explaining motivation for applying and how the job requirements are met (one A4 page maximum)

• A detailed Curriculum Vitae, including work experience, thesis, advanced level courses, publications, awards, etc. …

• Copies of diplomas, including list of courses taken and grades obtained

Any other information deemed relevant

Interested? Please sent your application directly to: application@glyconovi.eu , more info: www.glyconovi.eu