Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Molecular Biology

Two Postdoctoral Research Fellow posts are available in the laboratory of Professor Christopher Proud, newly appointed to the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton. You will join a BBSRC-funded research project to study the regulation and structural organisation of a key regulatory translation factor, eIF2B. Both posts are for three years and would ideally suit a researcher with a background in molecular biology and/or protein biochemistry. A project technician is also being recruited to give research support for these posts. The successful applicants will join a very active research team studying the control of mRNA translation and its role in human disease.

The objectives of the study are (i) to elucidate how eIF2B, a key regulator of protein synthesis and gene expression, is controlled by nutrients and hormones; (ii) to investigate the structural organisation of eIF2B; and (iii) to use this information to help understand how and why mutations in the genes for eIF2B cause a severe human neurological disease, vanishing white matter (VWM). The project is based on the extensive experience of Professor Proud’s laboratory in studying eIF2B and its role in VWM. It will make use a range of techniques of molecular biology, protein biochemistry and mass spectrometry.

You will have a PhD in a relevant area ideally with a strong biochemical content. You should be an enthusiastic scientist, a good team-worker and an excellent communicator.

The posts are available immediately with an estimated start date of 1 January 2009.

For full job description and personal specification criteria and to apply on line: www.jobs.soton.ac.uk/soton/jobboard/SearchJobs.aspx. Please quote job No. 2909-08-M.