Post-Doc Position at EMBL
in Biochemistry and Structural Biology

The position is available from January 2010 in the team of Christiane Schaffitzel, EMBL Grenoble (www.embl.fr).

The project is part of the interdisciplinary effort of the teams of Christiane Schaffitzel and Stephen Cusack (Structural Biology Unit Grenoble) and Andreas Kulozik and Matthias Hentze (Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit, EMBL Heidelberg). We want to address the exciting question how nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is triggered by a ribosome that encounters a premature stop codon on the mRNA.

The activities will include: Recombinant expression with baculovirus in insect cells, protein isolation, cell-free translation, ribosome purification, in vitro and in vivo biochemical characterization, cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography.

We seek a highly-motivated biochemist and/or structural biologist who is keen to apply state-of-the-art technologies for producing and characterizing human multiprotein-ribosomal complexes involved in NMD. By this interdisciplinary approach, involving structural and biochemical methods, we expect new revealing insights into the molecular mechanism of NMD and shed light on important medical implications.

Please send your application, including a CV and a list of referees to:
Christiane Schaffitzel, Email: schaffitzel@embl.fr

Our Publications:
Mitra, K., Schaffitzel, C., et al., Structure of the E. coli protein-conducting channel bound to a translating ribosome. Nature 2005: 318-324.

Schaffitzel, C. et al., Structure of the E. coli signal recognition particle bound to a translating ribosome. Nature 2006: 503-506.

Bingel-Erlenmeyer, R. et al. A peptide-deformylase complex reveals mechanism of nascent chain processing. Nature 2008: 108-111

Kohler et al., YidC and Oxa1 form dimeric insertion pores on the translating ribosome. Mol. Cell 2009: 344-353.