Postdoctoral position in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry - ,

The Department of Chemistry seeks a postdoctoral scientist who will work with synthetic carbohydrate chemistry in a multidisciplinary project aimed at developing antiviral glycoconjugates. The employment is full-time for two years with access January 2024 or by agreement.

Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry is one of Umeå University’s largest departments and with its more than 200 co-workers and excellent infrastructures it is a vibrant and stimulating research environment. Around 40 principial investigators and their teams conduct research in three major areas: Biological Chemistry, Environmental and Biogeochemistry, and Technical Chemistry that all are relevant for the transition towards a society characterized by sustainability and good health. Our workplace consists of a diverse set of people from different nationalities, backgrounds, and fields. As a postdoctoral scientist with us, you receive the benefits of support in career development, networking, administrative and technical support functions, along with good employment conditions. More information about the department is available at: https://www.umu.se/en/department-of-chemistry/

Project description and working tasks

The covid-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted our inability to counteract viruses that cause infections in humans. In the project we focus on viruses that cause infections in the respiratory tract by utilizing the carbohydrate sialic acid as receptor on the surface of host cells. Based on current knowledge including the structure of the sialic acid binding virus proteins you will design, synthesize, purify and characterize sialic acids and larger conjugates. In our multidisciplinary network of chemists, structural biologists, and virologists the compounds will be evaluated for their capacity to prevent virus attachment to and subsequent infection of host cells to increase our understanding of this first critical step in the virus life cycle. Your work responsibilities may also include supervision of thesis projects at the bachelor and master level.

You will work in state-of-the-art facilities with access to all necessary infrastructure of which many are organized in platforms within the Chemical Biological Centre: https://www.umu.se/en/chemical-biological-centre/. The team is part of Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR): https://www.umu.se/en/ucmr/. As a UCMR principal investigator Emmanuelle Charpentier made her discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool and in 2020 she and Jennifer Doudna were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry based on this ground-breaking finding.

The project is led by Professor Mikael Elofsson in collaboration with Professor Niklas Arnberg and is funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Kempe Foundations and the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Elofsson research group: https://www.umu.se/en/research/groups/mikael-elofsson-lab/ 
Arnberg research group: https://www.umu.se/forskning/grupper/niklas-arnberg/

You will also have the possibility to engage in and take part in activities organized by the Umeå Postdoc Society: https://umeapostdocsociety.se. Umeå University is located close to the city center and the city, the region and Northern Sweden have much to offer: https://www.gatewayumea.se.

In this great context you will have an excellent opportunity to build on your current strengths and further develop skills and competence relevant for your future career.

Qualifications

To be appointed under the postdoctoral agreement, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirements must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the appointment decision. To be appointed under the postdoctoral agreement, priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree prior to that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organizations, military service, or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area. Postdoctoral fellows who are to teach or supervise must have taken relevant courses in teaching and learning in higher education.

A successful applicant must have documented experience in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry. This includes in depth knowledge on protective group chemistry and glycosylation protocols as well as purification by chromatographic methods and structural characterization by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. In addition, you must have good ability to co-operate and take initiatives as well as good skills in oral and written English etc.

It is desirable that you have experience in sialic acid chemistry and preparation of different types of glycoconjugates. Furthermore, experience from infection research and working in a large multidisciplinary environment are meriting.

Application

• - Personal letter describing your background and why you are interested in this position (maximum of 1 page).
• - Curriculum vitae (CV) with publication list.
• - Certified copy of doctoral degree certificate.
• - Certified copies of other relevant diplomas, list of completed academic courses and grades.
• - Copy of doctoral thesis and up to five relevant articles.
• - Contact information for at least two reference persons.
• - Other documents that the applicant wishes to claim.

The application must be written in English or Swedish. The application is made through our electronic recruitment system. Documents sent electronically must be in PDF format. Wright DNR AN 2.2.1-1132-23 in the application. The closing date is 15 August 2023.

Further details are provided by Professor Mikael Elofsson: mikael.elofsson@umu.se