Accelerating Enzyme Evolution for Chemical Development: Intelligent Navigation of the Sequence Space - 3 year fixed term contract

Topic description

A doctoral position is available for 3 years to work with AstraZeneca (Pharmaceutical Sciences, Early Chemical Development, Biocatalysis Team) and Professor Florian Hollfelder at the Biochemistry Department of Cambridge University (
We are currently seeking to recruit a doctoral candidate to help accelerate enzyme discovery for biocatalytic applications. Even with advanced tools, directed evolution timelines often remain slower than increasingly rapid compound manufacturing campaigns and faster workflows are needed to find efficient enzymes for sustainable chemical processes and ultimately support the rapid delivery of medicines to patients. This project will speed up the discovery process by functional metagenomics and directed evolution in approaches that combine wet lab and in silico approaches using droplet microfluidics (Chem Rev. ; :-. doi: 10./acs.chemrev.2c), next-generation sequencing, and machine learning.

The project is pa...