Position Summary

The team of investigators from Michigan State University, Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will work together  to acquire a fundamental understanding of how multi-step reaction pathways are confined within and optimized by selectively permeable protein-based shells of Bacterial Microcompartments (BMCs).  The CCBC will apply this knowledge to establish BMC shell proteins as building blocks that can be used for confined, hierarchically-ordered biological and synthetic multi-step catalysis for reactions with long-range goals that involve addressing global challenges related to energy and the environment.

Several Postdoctoral positions, either computational or experimental, are available at MSU, research areas include biochemistry, structural and synthetic biology and computational modeling:

In the Ducat lab, a postdoctoral research associate is sought for research involving the expression/engineering of carboxysomes and other bacterial microcompartments in vivo within prokaryotes, including cyanobacteria. Successful candidates will have demonstrated productivity commensurate with their career stage involving molecular biology, microscopy, biochemical techniques, and/or model cyanobacterial species.

In the Feig lab, a postdoctoral research associate is sought to study crowding, confinement, and assembly questions related to bacterial microcompartments via computational modeling and simulation. A background in biophysics or physical chemistry along with experience in molecular dynamics simulations, multi-scale approaches including coarse-grained modeling, and programming in python or other computer languages are desired. A record of peer-reviewed publications is expected to document past research experiences.

In the Hausinger lab, a postdoctoral research assocciate position is available focused on construction of closed and open-shell bacterial microcompartments containing 2-aminophenol 1,6-dioxygenase and investigation of the effects of enzyme confinement on its activity.

In the Hegg lab, a postdoctoral research associate is sought to encapsulate cytochrome c nitrite reductase in bacterial microcompartments to reduce nitrogen compounds to ammonia, a promising energy storage molecule. The position will employ a combination of molecular biology, biochemistry, enzymology, kinetics, and spectroscopy to probe the role of confinement and enzyme organization on multi-electron redox reactions.

In the Kerfeld lab, postdoctoral research associate position is available involving protein/enzyme biochemistry, functional and structural characterization (including EM techniques, x-ray crystallography, x-ray footprinting), and synthetic biology-based approaches in vitro and in E. coli.

The TerAvest laboratory is seeking a molecular biologist or synthetic biologist postdoctoral research associate to create engineered bacterial microcompartments containing enzymes to catalyze specific reactions and to model and measure the rates of those reactions inside and outside of the compartments. Successful candidates will have experience with simultaneous expression of multiple heterologous proteins in bacteria, UV-Vis spectroscopy, analytical chemistry (HPLC and/or GC), and a publication record commensurate with their career stage.

In the Vermaas lab, a computational chemist or biophysicist postdoctoral research associate is sought to characterize permeation across bacterial microcompartment proteins for small organic molecules through equilibrium and non-equilibrium classical molecular dynamics simulations in the Vermaas laboratory. Successful candidates will have prior experience with molecular dynamics simulation in any molecular simulation engine, with a publication record commensurate with their career stage.

Equal Employment Opportu