Postdoctoral Opportunity in Structural Biology

A postdoctoral candidate is welcome to join the new lab of Jonas Barandun at MIMS and Umeå University to study infection related processes in pathogenic organisms with state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopy combined with biochemical techniques. The project involves establishing genomic manipulation tools, reconstitution of a unique infection mechanism in heterologous expression systems and structural studies using cryo-electron tomography and single particle analysis.

About the Barandun Lab
Our research group is affiliated with The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) and Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab). MIMS is the Swedish Node in the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine.
We are using a combination of in vivo assays, biochemistry and cryo-electron microscopy to study macromolecular complexes of specialized pathogenic organisms (prokaryotes and eukaryotes). We aim to provide a molecular basis of key mechanisms in the infection process and uncover unique structural determinants that could serve as novel targets for antibiotics.
The cryo-EM studies will be performed at Umeå Core Facility for Electron Microscopy at Umeå University which is hosting one of the two nodes of the national cryoEM facility at SciLifeLab.

Your Background
Highly motivated candidates who would like to work in a young and dynamic team are encouraged to apply. A background in molecular biology, genome manipulation (CRISPR/Cas9) and biochemistry is required and experience with C. elegans and structural biology a plus.

Applicants should send their CV, short letter of motivation including a summary of previous research experience and two reference contacts to Jonas Barandun, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Learn more about our research on www.barandunlab.org.

The Barandun lab at MIMS: www.mims.umu.se/groups/jonas-barandun.html

PostDoc project (Drug Discovery and Cell-Autonomous Immunity)

PostDoc project (Drug Discovery and Cell-Autonomous Immunity)

This projects aims to identify and characterize small chemical compounds that can counteract growth of the obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis either by activating cell-autonomous defense responses in infected cells or by repressing the pathogen’s ability to counteract these cellular defenses. The project is expected to provide deeper insights into mechanisms of host-pathogen interaction and to uncover starting points for the development of new host-directed or anti-virulence drugs.

Specific aims of the project include:

• The development and optimization of an experimental protocol for high-throughput small compound screening.
• The implementation of the screening and candidate validation.
• The characterization of the mode of action of validated candidate compounds.

Interested? Please send me your CV and a short letter of motivation (preferentially as single PDF file) (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

PhD and PostDoc projects

We are constantly seeking highly motivated students and post-docs who would like to join our team. If you are interested in applying state-of-the-art tools in mo­lecular genetics to debunk the power of cell-autonomous immunity, please send me your CV and a short letter of motivation (preferentially as single PDF file) (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).