PhD in AI-Driven Microbial Food Strain Engineering

DTU - Technical University of Denmark; Kongens Lyngby; On-site; DKK 320,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

DTU - Technical University of Denmark invites applications for a PhD Student in Microbial Strain Engineering. The role focuses on attenuating biosynthetic gene clusters in fungal chassis and tuning fermentation to improve safety and scalability for future food prototypes.

The ideal candidate has a Master’s degree in microbiology or related field, strong organizational skills, and fluency in English; experience with CRISPR and fermentation is preferred.

Qualifications

• Two-year Master’s degree in microbiology, food science, molecular biology, synthetic biology, mycology or related discipline.
• Excellent organisational and project management skills; able to develop new methods.
• Fluent in English; literacy in common IT systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute genetic edits in filamentous fungi (Aspergillus) to attenuate toxin genes.
• Characterise strains phenotypically and analytically with safety/chemistry teams.
• Study fermentation effects on secondary metabolites and reduce risk via gene/process changes.
• Deliver toxin-attenuated variants for downstream prototype development.

Skills

Organisational skills

Project management

IT literacy

English fluency

AI in research

independent & collaborative

Education

Master's degree (120 ECTS)

Microbiology / related discipline

Tools

CRISPR editing tools

Homologous recombination

Job description

DTU - Technical University of Denmark invites applications for a PhD Student in Microbial Strain Engineering. The role focuses on attenuating biosynthetic gene clusters in fungal chassis and tuning fermentation to improve safety and scalability for future food prototypes.

The ideal candidate has a Master’s degree in microbiology or related field, strong organizational skills, and fluency in English; experience with CRISPR and fermentation is preferred.