The successful candidate will be part of  the Systems and Synthetic Biology Research Line at our Center for Sustainable Future Technologies in Turin, which aims at tapping the potential of (photo-) autotrophic bacteria in order to foster resource-efficient, low-carbon and economically viable bio-process solutions. Nowadays microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry and chemical engineering collectively enable the rational engineering of efficient bio-factories. The to be applied strongly depend on the molecule of interest and the nature of the required production process, e.g. enhanced production of native compounds or production of heterologous products. Therefore, the isolation and practical implementation of suitably tailored strategies is a very  challenging task.

Activities will focus on the following tasks:

• Quantitative physiology of bacteria applied to the development of bioprocesses for the formation of bio-based products from CO/CO₂/H₂/N₂ and bio-waste;
• Mastering microorganisms with enhanced or novel production capabilities through strain development, which can imply the examination of non-native pathways compatibility with the host strain (substrate and co-factor availability) and pathways optimization;
• Quantification of performances of a bio-process through the estimate of the parameters associated with the productivity of the compound of interest in different growth conditions (e.g. enrichment for substrates and/or co-factors, co-substrates employment);
• Process optimization through the combinatorics-based analysis of the operational parameters associated with the bio-reactor environment (e.g. pressure, stirring speed, and relative fluxes and composition of gaseous substrates, volume scale);
• Process implementation in the diverse envisaged experimental conditions at laboratory scales;
• Determination of analytical methods suitable to bio-products quantification on a case-by-case level;
• Under-graduate and post-graduate students supervision;
• Writing of scientific proposals focused on the development of advanced bio-refineries sourcing their input and handling their production process in sustainable ways;
• Deliver results of research and innovation activity in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences;
• Network with our project partners and present our activities in consortia.

Skills and competencies for the development of the activity:

• a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering
• previous experience in an Applied Microbiology laboratory
• acquaintance with bio-reactor unit operations
• previous experience with anaerobic autotrophic microorganisms
• comfort/experience with quantitative data analysis or modeling
• pro-active orientation and commitment to innovation
• strong communication and time-management skills to drive quality results
• ability to work creatively and independently