Positions 4

Job location: Grenoble, France. Job title/reference: Postdoctoral Fellowship :Pushing the limits of Macromolecular Crystallography for poorly ordered crystals and micro focus data collection Application deadline: 15/3/2009 Application details/contact person: Personnel, EMBL, Postfach 10.2209, 69012 Heidelberg, Germany. application@embl.de Link: EMBL jobs [1] Brief job description: The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Grenoble Outstation has an active research program in structural and molecular biology, making particular use of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The Grenoble Instrumentation Group develops, supports and operates ESRF beamlines in collaboration with the ESRF MX-group. The group is also actively involved in the development of instruments and methods for x-ray scattering experiments.

The Diffraction Instrumentation Group wishes to recruit a postdoctoral fellow to assess, support and promote the use of a newly developed dehydration device for improving the diffraction quality of macromolecular crystals at synchrotron beamlines. This project is part of the European SPINE2-COMPLEXES program (http://www.spine2.eu/index.php). It would involve participation to the operation of the MRC/EMBL BM14 CRG beamline, and collaboration with the Diamond and Max-Lab synchrotrons.

In parallel with this work, and using the new data collection tools we are currently developing, the successful candidate is also expected to be involved in the development of new methods to efficiently collect complete diffraction datasets from micro-crystals.

Applicants should hold a PhD degree in structural biology and have received outstanding training in macromolecular crystallography. We expect from the candidate to have a strong interest in instrumentation and methodologies. Experience in crystallisation, X-Ray data collection at synchrotron, data processing, structural solution and model building is required .  Strong motivation and excellent scientific skills are essential, as well as willingness to support synchrotron users and to collaborate with external institutes in Europe. The candidate should be comfortable in working in a multidisciplinary team, and in an international environment.