Posting on behalf of Prof. Kalyan Das, Division of Virology & Chemotherapy, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven, Belgium. Please contact at kalyan.das@kuleuven.be if you are interested. Please share the advert with your colleagues and students.  

 

Postdoctoral
Researcher in Structural Biology

The
structural biology laboratory of Kalyan Das at Rega Institute, KU Leuven,
Belgium invites applications from highly motivated researchers interested in
pursuing a career in structure-based drug design using single-particle cryo-EM
and X-ray crystallography. A candidate should have a Ph.D. degree in structural biology,
molecular biology, chemical biology, biochemistry, or a related field with a
proven track record. Strong hands-on experience in protein engineering, protein
expression in bacterial and insect cells, and biophysical characterization is
essential. Knowledge in structural biology is helpful, however, successful
candidates will have the training opportunities to carry out structural studies
by single-particle cryo-EM and crystallography. A qualified person should be a
team player and should have strong writing and verbal communication skills.

Rega
Institute/KU Leuven provides a unique multi-disciplinary research platform,
expertise, and cutting-edge facilities for drug discovery in an academic
environment. Das’ lab studies structures and functions of viral polymerase,
mitochondrial RNA polymerase, bacterial (mycobacterium tuberculosis) RNA
polymerase, mammalian translation-translocon, etc. Our structural biology
laboratory is equipped with a 200kV Glacios TEM with autoloader and direct electron
detector, 600TB data server, Vitrobot Mark IV and Leica GP, GPU workstations
for cryo-EM. The lab is also equipped with Akta Pure 25 integrated with Wyatt
Optilab T-rEX, miniDAWN TREOS, and DynoPro NanoStar for purification and
characterization of macromolecules, and Mosquito and JANSi UVEX robotic setups
for high-throughput crystallization and crystal screening.

Selected recent publications

1. Singh et al. Sliding of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase over DNA
   creates a transient P pocket – targeting P-pocket by fragment screening. Nat
   Comm. 12:7127 (2021).
2. De Wijngaert, B., et al. Cryo-EM Structures Reveal Transcription
   Initiation Steps by Yeast Mitochondrial RNA Polymerase. Mol
   Cell 81:26 -280 (2021).
3. Gu, W., et al. Tenofovir-Amino Acid Conjugates Act as Polymerase
   Substrates- Implications for Avoiding Cellular Phosphorylation in the
   Discovery of Nucleotide Analogues. J Med Chem. 64:782–796 (2021).

Interested candidates are encouraged to send their
biodata, list of publications, and names and email addresses of three referees
to Kalyan Das, Professor, Division of Virology and Chemotherapy, Rega
Institute/KU Leuven, Belgium.

E-mail: kalyan.das@kuleuven.be

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Thank you.

Abhi

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