Postdoctoral position in single-molecule characterization of artificial protein motors

Subject description
Responsible for the position is Prof. Heiner Linke at the Division of Solid State Physics at Lund University. Heiner Linke has long-term experience in the development of molecular motors and is a PI in the ERC Synergy ArtMotor project. The postdoctoral project will also be done in close collaboration with the other ArtMotor partners Birte Höcker (University of Bayreuth, Germany) and Paul Curmi (UNSW, Sydney, Australia). Research visits to one or both of the collaborator’s groups can be part of the project.

Work duties
ArtMotor’s aim is to design, synthesize and characterise autonomous, artificial molecular motors based on proteins. The proteins will be developed and prepared by the collaboration partners Birte Höcker (University of Bayreuth, Germany) and Paul Curmi (UNSW, Sydney, Australia). Our role in the project is to support the design process, and to perform single-molecule experiments that show the protein motors motion.

Thus, the project tasks are to
Develop a fluorescence-based methods to detect individual steps of motors at nanometer-precision,
Use this to optimize and characterize the motor while it moves along a defined DNA track,
Using our state-of-the-art Lund Nano Lab to nanofabricate scaffolds as support for DNA traces.

Methods may include bioanalytical and biochemical methods, fluorescence microscopy, TIRF, STED, microfluidics, surface modification, nanofabrication, and image analysis.

We offer
You will be included in a team of researchers at NanoLund, a highly visible nanoscience center that offers excellent career development, an open and inclusive research environment with an active community of PhD students and postdocs, and access to a wide range of state-of-the-art capabilities within characterization, nanofabrication and modelling.