GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel is a foundation of public law jointly financed by the Federal Republic of Germany (90 %) and the state of Schleswig-Holstein (10 %) and is one of the internationally leading institutions in the field of marine sciences. Currently GEOMAR disposes over an annual budget of approx. 80 million Euro and has approx. 1000 employees.

In the frame of Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Networks project HOTBIO (A holistic approach to training a new generation of scientists in marine biodiscovery),GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel seeks an Early-Stage Researcher (ESR) – PhD student, starting on 01.03.2023 for a duration of 36 months.

HOTBIO is a marine biodiscovery project developing secondary metabolites from marine microorganisms into well-characterised compounds for applications in medicine, agriculture or aquaculture. This collaborative action will train a new generation of researchers to develop marine microbial natural products from the seabed to the bedside, by expanding a conventional marine biodiscovery pipeline through cutting edge technologies. This will advance the bioactive microbial metabolites to the later stages of preclinical development.

The consortium will welcome 13 early-stage researchers, who will develop their individual research projects for three years in the laboratories of one of the project partners. Within this network, the candidates will be introduced to every stage of the marine biodiscovery pipeline, while their individual research projects will be dedicated to certain steps of this pipeline. High quality training in transferable skills will also be provided by the network. The main research activities of the PhD students will be accompanied by secondments at different sites, as well as meetings, courses and practical workshops specifically crafted for the project. Through enrollment into local doctoral schools, fellows will get additional training to prepare them for a future career in any sector of science, both inside and outside academia.

The HOTBIO consortium is composed of seven European beneficiaries from six countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Norway), three partners from Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as well as associated partners from Austria, Ghana and India. HOTBIO consortium members hold vast expertise in microbiology, metabolomics, natural product chemistry, high throughput screening, genome mining, molecular biology, computational chemistry, chemical synthesis, target deconvolution, ADMET profiling, innovation and commercialization. The partners will work synergistically to optimise the learning experience for the candidates. The project is coordinated by the UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.

Job description:

PhD position at GEOMAR (ESR5; Extremophilic microorganisms against human, agricultural and aquacultural infections) will focus on understudied marine microorganisms, such as Gram-negative bacteria that are predominant in the ocean including extreme environments. Specific objectives will include optimized cultivation of microorganisms; extraction and screening against human, crop and fish pathogens; deep MS/MS based metabolomics using molecular networks/GNPS platform; genomic mining/screening to inform the isolation of the secondary metabolites;  purification and structure elucidation of bioactive molecules; analysis of the key components of the biosynthetic gene clusters leading to hit bioactive molecules and preclinical studies on compounds, including mechanism of biological activity and ADMET profiling.

What we offer:

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel is a leading institute in marine research worldwide. The research unit Marine Natural Product Chemistry and its applied arm GEOMAR Centre for Marine Biotechnology (GEOMAR-Biotech) offers a vibrant, curiosity-driven research environment with excellent research infrastructure, a collaborative work culture and a highly international team. Our labs are equipped with i) state-of-the-art chemical facilities e.g., in-house UPLC-QTOF-MS coupled with DESI Imaging Mass Spectrometry, HPLC-DAD-MS, HPLC-HRMS, GC-MS, automated extraction systems such as Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) and Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE), FT-IR, polarimeter and related databases, ii) excellent microbiology/biotechnology facilities and iii) over 75 running in vitro biological assays. Our in-house microbial culturing facilities span from small (1 L) to large-scale (300 L). We have full access to HR-(cryo)-NMR facility at Kiel University. We lead or participate many collaborative EU or national research projects.

Working language in the group is English.

Who can apply?

Applicants must be doctoral candidates, i.e., not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment, and they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than12 months in the 36 months immediately before their date of recruitment. Further information on all eligibility criteria is available here.

Required qualifications:

  • MSc degree in (microbial) natural product chemistry or a related field
  • Demonstrated experience in lab work and methodology in microbiology
  • Demonstrated experience in natural product chemistry
  • Fluency in spoken and written English and excellent oral and written communication skills

Employment conditions:

This is a 3-year full-time and fixed-term PhD position starting on 01.03.2023. The salary will follow the Marie Skłodowska-Curie allowance rules. The position cannot be split. The PhD student will be based at Research Unit Marine Natural Products Chemistry and supervised by Prof. Deniz Tasdemir. Several compulsory secondments to other HOTBIO partner institutions will take place during the PhD project, so the candidate must accept traveling and performing research at partner laboratories.

Please send your application in English containing i) Your CV and list of any publications, ii) Statement of research interests iii) Contact information for three references iv) Tanscripts/certificates of Bachelor and Master University Degrees v) Copy of valid identity documents.

Please put the keyword “HOTBIO-ESR-MN” in the subject of your cover letter and research statement.

Deadline for applications is 10.02.2023. Application documents should be uploaded no later than 17.02.2023 to the GEOMAR e-recruitment portal online application.

As soon as the selection procedure has finished, all application papers will be destroyed according to data protection regulation.

For further information regarding the position and research unit, please contact Prof. Dr. Deniz Tasdemir by e-mail (dtasdemir@geomar.de) and/or visit our website.

We will answer all your questions if you send us an e-mail to bewerbung(at)geomar.de. In doing so, please refer to the keyword “HOTBIO-ESR-MN”.

For more information, follow this link.