Job Information
- Organisation/Company: CEITEC MU
- Research Field: Biological sciences; Physics » Biophysics
- Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)
- Application Deadline: 30 Sep 2026 - 21:50 (UTC)
- Country: Czech Republic
- Type of Contract: Temporary
- Job Status: Full-time
- Offer Starting Date: 1 Feb 2027
- Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme
Offer Description
Doctoral study program: Life Sciences
Supervisor: Dominik Hrebík, Ph.D.
Topic title: Structural studies of bacterial cell division
Annotation
The bottom-up construction of an autonomously dividing minimal cell would represent a major advance in synthetic cell biology and provide a stringent test of our understanding of the fundamental principles of life, particularly the mechanisms that drive cell division. Decades of research have established Bacillus subtilis as a model organism for studying cell division in Gram-positive bacteria. However, despite substantial progress, a high-resolution structure of the bacterial division machinery remains elusive.
This PhD project will investigate the structure and assembly mechanism of the bacterial division Z-ring both in situ and in vitro, using a combination of focused ion beam milling, cryo-electron tomography, subtomogram averaging and single-particle cryo-EM analysis. The student will first optimise strategies to arrest cell division at a defined stage, enabling Z-ring structures to be averaged across multiple cells. They will then develop an approach for orienting cells perpendicular to the cryo-EM grid, facilitating downstream FIB-milling and high-resolution cryo-electron tomography. These methods will be used to determine the architecture of the Z-ring in its native cellular context.
In parallel, the student will support the in situ observations with in vitro reconstitutions of the division complex on artificial membranes, followed by structural analysis using cryo-EM. Together, these approaches will provide new insight into the molecular organisation and assembly of the bacterial cell division machinery, with broader implications for the design of antibiotics targeting cell division, synthetic cell biology and the design of minimal dividing cells.
Recommended literature
- Cameron TA, Margolin W. Insights into the assembly and regulation of the bacterial divisome. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2024;22(1):33-45. doi: 10.1038/s41579-023-00942-x
- Clemente CM, Mobarec JC, Bharat TAM. Applications and prospects of cryo-electron tomography in drug discovery and understanding disease. Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2026;98:103283. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2026.103283
- Errington J, Wu LJ. Cell Cycle Machinery in Bacillus subtilis. Subcell Biochem. 2017;84:67-101. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-53047-5_3. PMID: 28500523; PMCID: PMC6126333.
- Klumpe S, Plitzko JM. Cryo-focused ion beam milling for cryo-electron tomography: Shaping the future of in situ structural biology. Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2025;94:103138. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2025.103138
Research area: structural biology, bacterial cell biology, cytokinesis
Keywords: cell division, structure, cryo-EM, cryo-ET, bacteria, membrane
Funding of the PhD candidate:
The student’s co-financing will be covered by the group’s start-up grant from the institute.
In the academic year 2026/27 the net income of the CEITEC PhD School student is expected to be at least CZK 29,400 (approx. EUR 1215).
Requirements for candidate:
Applicants should have a strong background in one or more of the following areas or related fields: structural biology, molecular biology, biochemistry or biophysics. Experience with Linux-based systems and scripting would be advantageous, but is not essential.
We are equally interested in candidates who are enthusiastic about science, motivated by the project topic, keen to learn new experimental and computational methods, and driven to tackle important and challenging scientific questions. Hard skills are valuable, but curiosity, commitment and scientific ambition will be valued just as highly.
Information about the supervisor:
The supervisor is currently a senior postdoc in John Briggs’s group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. He will start his independent research group at CEITEC MU in 2027.
Key publications:
- Stacey, J.C.V.*, Hrebík, D.*, Nand, E., Shetty, S.D., Qu, K., Boicu, M., Anders-Össwein, M., Uchil, P.D., Dick, R.A., Mothes, W., Kräusslich, H.-G., Müller, B., Briggs, J.A.G., 2025. The conserved HIV-1 spacer peptide 2 triggers matrix lattice maturation. Nature 640, 258–264. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08624-9 *these authors contributed equally
- Hřebík, D., Gondová, M., Valentová, L., Füzik, T., Přidal, A., Nováček, J., Plevka, P., 2022. Polyelectrolyte coating of cryo-EM grids improves lateral distribution and prevents aggregation of macromolecules. Acta Cryst D 78, 1337–1346. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798322009299
- Hřebík, D., Füzik, T., Gondová, M., Šmerdová, L., Adamopoulos, A., Šedo, O., Zdráhal, Z., Plevka, P., 2021. ICAM-1 induced rearrangements of capsid and genome prime rhinovirus 14 for activation and uncoating. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2024251118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024251118
- Hřebík, D., Štveráková, D., Škubník, K., Füzik, T., Pantůček, R., Plevka, P., 2019. Structure and genome ejection mechanism of Staphylococcus aureus phage P68. Science Advances 5, eaaw7414. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw7414
Start date: February 2027 or sooner
Sign-up link: https://www.ceitec.eu/structural-studies-of-bacterial-cell-division/t11795
Where to apply
Website: https://www.ceitec.eu/structural-studies-of-bacterial-cell-division/t11795
Work Location(s)
Number of offers available: 1
Company/Institute: CEITEC MU
Country: Czech Republic
City: Brno
Postal Code: 625 00
Street: Kamenice 753/5
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