1 PhD Scholarship in Biomimetic Resource Recovery in Denmark | Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

DTU Environment invites highly talented junior researchers who have obtained outstanding results during their MSc studies and who have demonstrated excellence and potential in their field of study, to apply for a PhD scholarship in the Environmental Biomimetic group at DTU Environment.

The Environmental Biomimetic Group currently consists of an associate professor, one postdoc and four PhD students.

We do research on biomimetic membranes and proteins for separation and sensor applications. We use experimental techniques related to membrane function & characterization and protein design as well as theoretical tools including computational fluid dynamics, molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT). We have extensive collaboration with academic and industrial partners worldwide where we aim at diminishing the conceptual and practical barriers in collaborations between academia and industry.

Responsibilities and tasks

• The overall aim of the PhD is to evaluate suitable phosphate binding proteins (PBPs) for phosphate recovery applications. The candidate will perform interdisciplinary work of computational and experimental techniques to help assess the suitability for phosphate recovery. The work will include:

- Computational studies of PBPs using fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and, if necessary, Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations.

- Experimental studies using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to overexpress and purify PBPs in yeast and/or E. coli.

- Ligand binding assays using various experimental techniques.

• The candidate should be able to obtain and evaluate computational and experimental results and actively plan and adjust his or her own work in close teamwork with other group members and other collaborators.
• Theoretical work will be performed using the AMBER package on our own dedicated hardware installed at the high performance computing (HPC) resources at DTU.
• Experimental work will be done in close collaboration with relevant partners within the frameworks of the IBISS and MEMENTO projects headed by Associate Professor Claus Hélix-Nielsen

Qualifications

Candidates should have a master's degree in engineering or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to the master's degree in engineering.