PhD position in plant science with a focus on small proteins

The Department of Plant Physiology (Umeå University) which is part of Umeå Plant Science Centre invites applicants for a PhD position in plant science in Stephan Wenkel’s research group. The expected starting date is summer/autumn 2024. 

We are recruiting a PhD student to work on a project aimed at manipulating plant development using microProtein engineering. MicroProteins are small single-domain proteins that have been shown to control diverse biological pathways. While some microProteins are encoded as individual genes, we have evidence that other microProteins might be hiding in genes and are dynamically expressed in response to changes in the environment. We aim to dissect light and magnetosensing signaling pathways to understand the biotechnological potential of these small proteins and aim to use them as tools to engineer biosynthetic pathways. In the project we will employ forward, and reverse genetics approaches in Arabidopsis plants and yeast, protein biochemistry and biochemical engineering.