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Research Associate in Synthetic Biology and DNA Data Storage

Imperial College London
London
3 months ago
Applications closed

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Dr Thomas Heinis and Dr Thomas Ouldridge are looking for aspiring PostDoctoral researchers who are interested in joining a collaborative project at Imperial College aiming to developing highly efficient, automated approaches to molecular nanotechnology. Our particular focus is on data storage in DNA origami; we want to store arbitrary binary information in DNA nanostructures and to read it back, using minimal resources and in an automated fashion.


We are looking for a candidate with strong wetlab skills (DNA origami, liquid handling robots for automation, reactions in small volumes) to work closely with our team of computer scientists, synthetic biologists and lab automation specialists.

The successful candidate will be a member of the and groups at Imperial College which focus on high impact interdisciplinary research, ., novel DNA technologies, assay formats and developing ground-breaking data storage techniques.


The ideal candidate will have a PhD in biology/chemistry (or related) with research interests that significantly overlap with DNA data storage. More generally, we are interested in candidates with skills in the following areas:

Synthetic biology DNA origami/nanostructures Low-volume, droplet reactions Lab automation Single molecule microscopy

Basic data analysis skills (bioinformatics tools for sequence alignment are expected.

See job description for full list of requirements. 

*Candidates who not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be hired at Research Assistant level: salary scale £43,003 - £46,297 per annum.


You will have the opportunity to continue your career at a world-leading institution. Imperial College is consistently in the top 10 world university rankings with the Department of Computing ranked top of the 2021 UK REF assessment.

You will receive a sector-leading salary and remuneration package (including 38 days off a year) and a comprehensive early career development support package including 10 training and development days.

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