OPEN POSITIONS

DC 2 | Discovery and screening for promiscuous activities in nonheme iron dependent halogenase libraries

The main part of your PhD research (4 years in total) will be carried out at the University of Groningen (RUG, the Netherlands) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sandy Schmidt in the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Biology at the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy. Within these four years, an academic research stay (of 12 months) will take place at the University of Crete (UoC, Greece) under the supervision of Prof. Ioannis Pavlidis. Additionally, an industrial secondment at the company Prozomix (UK) is foreseen. The Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) – Doctoral Network (DN) project starts in January 2026. The date of recruitment and start of the PhD project is planned for April 2026 and latest in December 2026. Your PhD degree (so-called double degree) will be awarded based on successful completion of the research work from two universities (RUG, the Netherlands and University of Crete, Greece). You will also be required to participate in the training events and workshops organized by the DN- Joint Doctorates (JD) program. As a MSCA fellow, you are also expected to contribute your time in the dissemination of your PhD project’s result through public engagement and other scientific platforms.

The PhD research will focus on:

(i) Interdisciplinary project on bioinformatics, biocatalysis, and chemistry

(ii) Genome-guided identification of novel halogenases,

(iii) Metagenomic prospecting of natural metalloenzymes (industrial secondment),

(iv) Cloning, expression, and elucidation of enzyme promiscuity of selected candidates,

(v) Screening of metagenomic libraries of extreme marine environments followed by biochemical and kinetic characterisation of selected candidates (academic secondment)

(vi) Structural and mechanistic investigations of selected enzymes

Apply here:

Recruitment