Postdoctoral Research Associate

About the Role
Queen Mary University of London is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join Dr Lin Su's group and work on S-LATTICE, a 36-month ARIA-funded consortium project. Led by the University of Edinburgh, with eight groups across the UK and the United States, the consortium engineers microbial S-layer proteins into large-area, defect-free, metal-coordinated 2D lattices for selective ion separation and catalysis. This full-time post is fixed-term for two years, extendable to the full 36 months subject to continued funding.

For the first 18 months, you will supply assembly-competent S-layer protein: expressing, purifying, and refolding the proteins, and mapping the buffer, cation, and interface conditions that yield defect-free, metal-coordinating films. From Month 18, the work moves to catalysis: coupling photosensitisers to deliver electrons to pore-bound metal ions, forming bimetallic Cu/Pd nanoclusters, and testing them in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction and green carbon-coupling reactions.

You will be based at Queen Mary, with a funded early-project placement in Professor Caroline Ajo-Franklin's laboratory at Rice University to standardise purification and assembly protocols across the consortium.

This job is part of an Advanced Research Invention Agency-funded project, subject to contract negotiations.

About You
You hold, or are close to completing, a PhD in biochemistry, chemical biology, bionanotechnology, or a related field. You have direct experience of recombinant protein expression and purification in bacterial hosts, and characterise proteins and their assemblies with standard biophysical methods.

The role suits someone who can carry the early protein-supply work and then extend into the bio-inorganic chemistry of the later demonstrators, rather than a specialist in one of these. You are willing and able to spend an initial period at Rice University in Houston.

About the School/Department/Institute/Project
The role sits within the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, one of the largest Schools within Queen Mary University of London. The school has a strong research output and demanding educational standards for its students, but all members benefit from a high level of academic and social integration. In addition, the school is committed to equality of opportunity and holds a Silver Athena SWAN Award.

About Queen Mary
At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits
We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and campus facilities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.