Research Associate in Molecular Biology Laboratory Automation

We are happy to announce an opening for a Research Associate in molecular biology laboratory automation at the MICALIS Institute (INRAE, AgroParisTech, University of Paris-Saclay). This is an excellent opportunity to join a leading research group dedicated to advancing synthetic biology applications for health and biotechnology through innovative multidisciplinary approaches.

The MICALIS Institute is home to over 350 researchers pursuing research in microbiology. Within MICALIS, our group specializes in whole-cell and cell-free synthetic biology for metabolic pathway and biosensor engineering. We are currently engaged in a national project aimed at creating automated protocols for synthetic biology, with a strong emphasis on reproducibility.

Position Overview. The successful candidate will:

• Participate in the development of automated protocols for synthetic biology applications.
• Focus on reproducibility to ensure consistent and reliable results.
• Engineer metabolic pathways using advanced automated protocols involving liquid handlers for gene assembly, strain transformation, strain cultivation, and spectrophotometer and highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) measurements.
• Identify and optimize parameters affecting reproducibility and develop strategies to enhance it.

What We Offer:

• A collaborative environment with experienced researchers and engineers.
• Access to cuttingedge technologies and methodologies in metabolic pathway engineering and automation.
• A chance to work closely with experts in using workflows and large language models for protocol automation.
• For more information about our work and team, visit  https://jfaulon.com/galaxysynbiocad-portal/

Qualifications:

• A Ph.D. degree, preferably with postdoctoral experience, in systems & synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, or molecular biology.
• Proficiency in experimental protocols and analytical techniques used in synthetic biology, molecular biology, and biochemistry.
• Experience with liquid handlers, pipetting robotic equipment, mass spectrometry, or HPLC is desirable, along with experience in designing and engineering metabolic pathways.
• Ability to write highquality research manuscripts, strong collaborative skills, and excellent communication skills in English are required.

The opening is for one year and can be renewed for two additional years. During the first year we anticipate the recruted candidate will have demonstrated the production in E. coli of a molecule of interest using a fully automated workflow runing on Opentrons.