Postdoctoral Scholar

Job Details

Job Title: Postdoctoral Scholar

Requisition Number: DU14454

Department Name: 8E030:Chemistry

Work Location: Lexington, KY

Salary Range: $49,850.00/year

Type of Position: Other

Position Time Status: Full-Time

Required Education: Ph. D. in chemistry, biochemistry or closely related field.

Required Related Experience: Culture of E. coli, sterile technique, protein purification, simple column chromatography, UV visible spectrophotometry and titrations, protein and cofactor quantitation’s, standard curves, analysis of spectra, making figures, biochemical spectroscopy of another form (fluorescence or CD or NMR or EPR, for example).

Physical Requirements: Active work at lab bench, move between lab rooms, push carts and carry flasks, good vision, hearing, and generally fit for active research work.

Shift: Standard lab working hours. Around 8-5 Monday – Friday.

Job Summary

The responsibilities of a postdoctoral scholar will include high-quality research, updating the P.I. regularly on progress and challenges, training students or other researchers joining the lab, a fair share of equipment maintenance and upkeep in the lab and ordering supplies, excellent record-keeping, safety compliance including correct chemical maintenance and disposal practices, analysis and presentation of data, archiving data in forms useful to other researchers and the P.I., writing papers, assistance applying for grants and overseeing junior members of the group, preparation of periodic reports and presentations (at a meeting a year, at least).

Targets and opportunities envisioned for the research are: 1. Production of electron transfer flavoproteins (ETFs) including mutated variants. 2. Characterization of effects of including partner proteins. 3. Making amino acid substitutions and characterizing their consequences. 4. Similarly for the effects of ligand binding. 5. Deposition of enzymes on electrodes and electrochemical characterization of said enzymes/complexes. 6. Studies of ETFs containing modified flavins. 7. Kinetic characterizations. 8. Investigation of possible significance of buried disulfide bonds. 9. Fluorescence including single-molecule and FRET if this avenue proves fruitful.

Not all of these initiatives will bear fruit, and several will be allocated to other group members, but the forgoing are aims of the projects supporting this postdoctoral position.

Skills / Knowledge / Abilities

The following skills will all be valuable. It is not required that all be pre-existing, but candidates already skilled in the following will be preferred: culture of E. coli, sterile technique, protein purification, simple column chromatography, UV visible spectrophotometry and titrations, biochemical spectroscopy of another form (fluorescence or CD or NMR or EPR, for example). Protein and cofactor quantitation’s, standard curves, analysis of spectra, making figures. Anaerobic technique, including gas train (vacuum line) and glove box, electrochemistry. Enzyme assays including enzyme kinetics (steady state and pre-steady state). Experience with bioinformatics, scripting phylogenetics.

Preferred Education/Experience: Courses in protein biochemistry, enzyme mechanism, molecular biophysics, structural biology, experimental biochemistry, physical chemistry or physical biochemistry.