Opportunities

Interested to join our group and work with us?

Bachelor and Masters theses

Students interested in doing their Bachelor or Masters thesis in our lab are welcome to contact us. We have a range of possible projects combining protein biochemistry with structural biology as well as biophysical and computational methods.

PhD students and Postdocs

We are always looking for motivated PhD/ Postdoc candidates with a strong interest in protein engineering & design and a background in protein biochemistry and/or computational biology. Interested candidates should contact me directly (birte.hoecker[at]uni-bayreuth.de) and include the names of references that can provide a letter of recommendation. In addition, a concise description of skills, previous work experience and a motivation letter should be included.

Open positions

The following positions are available immediately:

Postdoctoral fellow – Structural Biologist / Protein Engineer

This is a unique opportunity to participate in a European Research Council project funded by a prestigious ERC Synergy 2020 grant. The project is in collaboration with the partners from Lund University, Sweden and UNSW in Sydney, Australia. Our aim is to build autonomous protein walkers from non-motor parts, using transcription factors as feet and DNA as track. The work will include establishing methods to screen proteins for DNA binding and enzymatic activity in a medium to high-throughput way, along with structural and functional characterization of the proteins. The position requires a PhD in biochemistry, biotechnology, structural biology, or a related field. Experience with structural determination, protein-DNA interactions, enzyme design, computational protein design or directed evolution are all welcome. 

PhD student - Enzymatic degradation of microplastics

The project is part of the Collaborative Research Center 1357 Microplastics (https://www.sfb-mikroplastik.uni-bayreuth.de/en/). Plastic degrading enzymes offer a promising basis for the development and optimization of sustainable recycling methods. In this project we are investigating, characterizing and engineering enzymes for their ability to degrade synthetic polymers in order to improve their usability in these processes. For this project we are looking for a candidate with background in protein and enzyme biochemistry. Experience in protein engineering, structural biology techniques and/or sequence analysis is a plus.