Senior Scientist: Plant Cell Screening & Photosynthesis

Ellison Institute of Technology; Oxford; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary dependent on experience

Travel allowance

Bonus

Private Medical Insurance

Pension

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Employee discounts

Cycle to Work Scheme

Nursery Salary Sacrifice

Neurodiversity support

Coaching & Therapy services

Job summary

Ellison Institute of Technology seeks a Scientist or Senior Scientist in Plant Cell Screening and Photosynthesis Engineering to lead development of a plant cell-based platform for evaluating carbon fixation and enzyme variants. You will advance engineered pathways toward whole-plant validation within the Plant Biology Institute.

The role requires a PhD with strong background in plant biology and metabolic engineering, plus experience in CRISPR and plant genetic engineering, aiming to translate

Qualifications

• PhD in Plant Biology, Plant Physiology, Photosynthesis, Synthetic Biology, Metabolic Engineering, Molecular Biology or a related discipline.
• Experience developing or applying cell-based methods to measure carbon fixation, photosynthetic activity and/or metabolic performance.
• Experience in engineering photosynthesis or carbon fixation.
• Experience in plant metabolic engineering, enzyme engineering or synthetic biology.
• Experience designing, generating or screening enzyme variant libraries.
• Experience with transient and stable genetic engineering in plant cell cultures, including targeted gene knockout, gene insertion, and CRISPR-based genome editing.

Responsibilities

• Lead 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 knockouts, insertions and CRISPR edits.
• Apply iterative design-build-test-learn cycles to develop engineering strategies.
• Advance enzyme variants and pathways into whole plants for validation.
• Drive rigorous experimental design, execution, and data interpretation.
• Deliver progress through stage-gated milestones.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate cutting-edge techniques.
• Present work at seminars and external meetings; contribute to field developments.
• Mentor other members of the research group.
• Translate results into commercial opportunities aligned with humane endeavours.
• Support IP creation and patent protection activities.
• Conduct research ethically in line with policy and best practice.

Skills

Cell-based methods

Photosynthesis engineering

Plant metabolic engineering

CRISPR genome editing

Genetic engineering in plants

Education

PhD in Plant Biology or related discipline

Tools

Bioreactor platforms

Plant gas-exchange analysis

Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements

Laboratory automation / robotics

Job description

Ellison Institute of Technology seeks a Scientist or Senior Scientist in Plant Cell Screening and Photosynthesis Engineering to lead development of a plant cell-based platform for evaluating carbon fixation and enzyme variants. You will advance engineered pathways toward whole-plant validation within the Plant Biology Institute.

The role requires a PhD with strong background in plant biology and metabolic engineering, plus experience in CRISPR and plant genetic engineering, aiming to translate