Plant Cell Screening Scientist - Photosynthesis Engineering

1000scholars; Oxford; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary + travel allowance

Enhanced holiday

Pension - employer contribution 7.5%

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Private Medical Insurance

Employee discounts

Electric car scheme

Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme

Cycle to Work Scheme

Family Planning

Neurodiversity support

Coaching & Therapy

Job summary

Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford is seeking a Scientist or Senior Scientist in Plant Cell Screening and Photosynthesis Engineering to lead a plant cell–based platform for carbon fixation assessment. You will drive engineering of photosynthesis pathways and enzyme variants, advancing successful designs to whole plants for high‑value crop improvements.

The role involves collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, IP considerations, and translating research into commercial

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience developing or applying cell-based methods to measure carbon fixation, photosynthetic activity and/or metabolic performance.
• Demonstrated experience in engineering photosynthesis or carbon fixation.
• Demonstrated experience in plant metabolic engineering, enzyme engineering or synthetic biology.
• Demonstrated experience designing, generating or screening enzyme variant libraries.
• Demonstrated experience with transient and stable genetic engineering in plant cell cultures, including CRISPR-based genome editing.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of a plant cell–based screening platform to assess carbon fixation and other physiological responses in suspension cultures.
• Develop and apply quantitative methods to measure carbon fixation rates in plant cell suspensions.
• Identify improved variants of photosynthesis enzymes using the screening platform.
• Assess engineered metabolic pathways designed to enhance photosynthesis.
• Lead genetic engineering experiments in plant cell cultures, including CRISPR-based genome editing.
• Apply iterative design–build–test–learn cycles to develop and refine engineering strategies.
• Advance promising enzyme variants and pathway designs into whole plants for functional validation.
• Drive robust experimental design, execution, and data interpretations to ensure reproducible outcomes.
• Deliver research progress through stage-gated milestones.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate cutting edge techniques into experiments.
• Present scientific work at seminars and external meetings; contribute to field developments.

Skills

Strong research background

Cell-based methods

Photosynthesis engineering

Metabolic engineering

CRISPR/Genome editing

Education

PhD in Plant Biology/Physiology/Photosynthesis/Synthetic Biology/Metabolic Engineering/Molecular Biology/Biochemistry

Job description

Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford is seeking a Scientist or Senior Scientist in Plant Cell Screening and Photosynthesis Engineering to lead a plant cell–based platform for carbon fixation assessment. You will drive engineering of photosynthesis pathways and enzyme variants, advancing successful designs to whole plants for high‑value crop improvements.

The role involves collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, IP considerations, and translating research into commercial