Postdoctoral Fellow in Time-resolved and Room-temperature Crystallography

PSI; Villigen; On-site; CHF 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Time-resolved and Room-temperature Crystallography. The role focuses on developing time-resolved experiments, including microsecond pump-probe and picolitre injection techniques, to study dynamic structural enzymology at MX beamlines.

The successful candidate will establish SSX workflows on cryo-compatible chips, assess radiation damage at room temperature, and publish results while collaborating

Qualifications

• PhD degree in structural biology, biophysics, biochemistry, chemistry, physics or a related field.
• Hands-on experience in macromolecular crystallography, from X-ray data collection and processing to structure determination and refinement.
• Experience in serial and/or time-resolved crystallography at synchrotrons or XFELs.
• Strong interest in method and instrumentation development and enjoyment of working in an interdisciplinary team at a large-scale research facility.
• Very good written and spoken English.
• Desirable: experience with protein production and (micro)crystallisation, reaction initiation (mixing, laser pump-probe, T-jump) or enzyme kinetics
• Desirable: programming skills (e.g. Python) and experience with serial data-processing software (e.g. CrystFEL, XDS) or radiation-damage studies

Responsibilities

• Implement and run time-resolved experiments: substrate / ligand droplet mixing with a picolitre injector and microsecond pump-probe experiments (laser-induced temperature jump, photocaged compounds) using the JUNGFRAU detector
• Apply these methods to dynamic structural enzymology to capture reaction intermediates and conformational changes
• Establish serial synchrotron crystallography SSX workflows on cryo-compatible fixed-target chips (e.g. IMISX, MISP-chip) for dynamic studies
• Characterise X-ray-induced heating and radiation damage at room temperature on micro- to millisecond time scales and derive data-collection protocols
• Publish results in peer-reviewed journals, present them at international conferences and support external users and collaborators

Skills

Macromolecular crystallography

Serial crystallography

Time-resolved crystallography

Interdisciplinary teamwork

English proficiency

Enzyme kinetics

Education

PhD in structural biology/related field

Tools

CrystFEL

XDS

Python

Job description

The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI is the largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland. At PSI, we conduct cutting-edge research in the fields of future technologies, energy and climate, health innovation and fundamentals of nature. Through basic and applied research, we work on sustainable solutions for central questions from society, science and the economy. Training young people is a central concern of PSI. For this reason, around a quarter of our employees are postdocs, doctoral students or apprentices. Altogether, PSI employs 2300 people.

Our group operates the three macromolecular crystallography beamlines of the Swiss Light Source SLS, recently upgraded to the fourth-generation SLS 2.0, as well as the Cristallina-MX endstation at the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL. In a new project, we are developing "Cryo2RT" approaches that combine the robustness of cryogenic sample preparation, shipping and beamline automation with room-temperature, multi-temperature and time-resolved crystallography, to make dynamic structural biology accessible on standard MX beamlines.

For the Macromolecular Crystallography group in the Center for Photon Science we are looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Time-resolved and Room-temperature Crystallography.

Postdoctoral Fellow in Time-resolved and Room-temperature Crystallography

Your tasks

• Implement and run time-resolved experiments: substrate / ligand droplet mixing with a picolitre injector and microsecond pump-probe experiments (laser-induced temperature jump, photocaged compounds) using the JUNGFRAU detector
• Apply these methods to dynamic structural enzymology to capture reaction intermediates and conformational changes
• Establish serial synchrotron crystallography SSX workflows on cryo-compatible fixed-target chips (e.g. IMISX, MISP-chip) for dynamic studies
• Characterise X-ray-induced heating and radiation damage at room temperature on micro- to millisecond time scales and derive data-collection protocols
• Publish results in peer-reviewed journals, present them at international conferences and support external users and collaborators

Your profile

• PhD degree in structural biology, biophysics, biochemistry, chemistry, physics or a related field
• Hands-on experience in macromolecular crystallography, from X-ray data collection and processing to structure determination and refinement
• Experience in serial and/or time-resolved crystallography at synchrotrons or XFELs
• Strong interest in method and instrumentation development and enjoyment of working in an interdisciplinary team at a large-scale research facility
• Very good written and spoken English
• Desirable: experience with protein production and (micro)crystallisation, reaction initiation (mixing, laser pump-probe, T-jump) or enzyme kinetics
• Desirable: programming skills (e.g. Python) and experience with serial data-processing software (e.g. CrystFEL, XDS) or radiation-damage studies

We offer

Our institute is based on interdisciplinary, innovative and dynamic collaboration. In addition to a systematic induction, you will benefit from individual development opportunities and our pronounced culture of further education. We support you with modern employment conditions and on-site facilities to help you reconcile work with family life or personal interests.

The position is limited to 2 years, with the option of a 1 year extension. Starting date: by agreement.

For further information, please contact Dr Guillaume Gotthard, phone [phone] or Dr Meitian Wang, phone [phone].

We look forward to receiving your online application, including a list of publications and contact details of two referees, by 10 January 2027 for the position as a Postdoctoral Fellow (index no. 6121-29365).

Paul Scherrer Institute, People & Culture, Mariusz Prus, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland