Biological wetlab technician in Gene Editing and Gene Translation Metabolis

at  Universit du Luxembourg

The University of Luxembourg is an international research university with a distinctly multilingual and interdisciplinary character.
The Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) is an interdisciplinary research centre of the University of Luxembourg.
We conduct fundamental and translational research in the field of Systems Biology and Biomedicine – in the lab, in the clinic and in silico. We focus on neurodegenerative processes and are especially interested in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and their contributing factors. The LCSB recruits talented scientists from various disciplines: computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists, chemists, engineers, physicists and clinicians from more than 50 countries currently work at the LCSB. We excel because we are truly interdisciplinary, and together we contribute to science and society.

The laboratory of Gene Expression & Metabolism is seeking a technician for a wetlab biology project studying yeast genetics and metabolism. Basic benchtop biochemistry skills such as DNA, RNA, and protein extractions and basic quality control (e.g. qPCR, use of Bradford reagent or BCA) are a prerequisite. In vitro experience is also necessarily, with candidates who have prior experience growing yeast being favored. Computational skills, such as basic bioinformatics and ability to read/program in R, are desirable but not necessary. The candidate will work in a team of five people: a PhD candidate at the wetlab-drylab interface (though more on drylab) who is also in Luxembourg, a senior bioinformatics scientist and a wetlab technician in Stanford, and a PhD candidate bioinformatician in Munich. The project began in September 2024 with the final design phase, and the first experiments start in January 2025, thus assistance from a technician in Luxembourg is required starting around mid-March 2025, though the candidate may start somewhat earlier.
This research project has two main goals. The first is to use CRISPR to modify single point mutations in different genetic backgrounds in yeast, and to then grow these different types of yeast in different carbon environments and in different inhibitory chemicals, to see which mutations confer growth advantages. The second goal is to study the gene expression (i.e. the transcriptome and proteome) to understand the molecular pathways for how those point mutations result in a change in growth. The first phase of the project will implement these DNA variants one-by-one, and afterwards the mutations will be implemented at higher orders to create yeast with more pronounced growth phenotypes, and to understand fundamental relationships in genetic regulation such as epistasis, additivity, and to experimentally test how reliable predictive models of DNA variant impact work at high throughput (e.g. tens of thousands of variants tested).
In brief, the applicant should be from a biology or bioengineering background. The project will be roughly 90% wetlab biology work, and 10% bioinformatician/data analyst work.
This project is funded in collaboration with a research group at EMBL/Stanford (Prof. Lars Steinmetz) and another at the Technical University of Munich (Prof. Julien Gagneur).
For further information, please contact: Assoc. Prof. Evan Williams, evan.williams@uni.lu.