PhD fellowship in Plant Biochemistry

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PhD fellowship in Plant Biochemistry

The Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Plant Biochemistry Laboratory invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in ”The Signalling Processes Controlling Plant Plasticity”. The project is supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council entitled “ARC Research Hub for Engineering Plants to Replace Fossil Carbon”.

Start date is (expected to be 1 January 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The project

Earlier this year, our research group discovered that cytochrome P450s of the CYP79 family are signature enzymes in the biosynthesis of the pivotal signal molecule nitric oxide in plants. The objective of the PhD project is to identify the transcription factors (TFs) controlling the spaciotemporal expression patterns of the CYP79 encoding genes in specific meristematic plant tissues, using sorghum as the experimental system. Using the large FIND-IT collection of sorghum mutants developed at the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, knock‑out variants and variants harboring specific selected mutations will be isolated to monitor the in planta impact of individual TFs on NO signaling. This project opens an entirely new approach to identify the hitherto enigmatic fundamental molecular mechanisms used by Nature to furnish sessile plants with the metabolic plasticity that turns plants into the key biological production system on our planet. Based on the identified mechanisms, the project is going to outline how to orchestrate crop plants for the future in which the plasticity and resilience have been further optimized to gain resistance to disease pandemics and to tolerate negative environmental effects e.g. related to climatic instability. Secured global availability of vegetable foods will also serve to shift societal preferences from animal‑to plant‑based foods. The methodology does not include steps which in some countries would cause labelling of the final crop variety as a GMO line and make cross‑border export more complicated.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for candidates within the field(s) of plant biochemistry, plant biotechnology, molecular biology, plant signalling and/or bioinformatics with experimental experience working with biosynthesis, metabolic regulation and/or functional analysis of plant specialized metabolites. Motivation by the desire to acquire new knowledge of the complexity of plant systems and by a desire to translate gained insights into sustainable applications are additional important selection criteria.

Our group and research‑and what do

we offer
?

[Our Laboratory is among the world leading laboratories within plant synthetic biology. Built on truly interdisciplinary research, a strong international network, a highly interactive international research environment, the laboratory has made many seminal contributions to science and has fostered a multitude of eminent researchers with influential positions in Denmark and abroad (https://plen.ku.dk/english/research/plant_biochemistry/). Our laboratory aims to provide science‑based solutions facilitating the global move into The Planthroprocene Era where use of fossil fuels is replaced by use of renewable energy resources and bio‑based production. Green photosynthetic organisms play a vital role in this transition as providers of both food, biomaterials and energy as well as essential medicines, nutraceuticals, condiments and colorants.

The group is a part of Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen. We are located in Copenhagen.

We offer
creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories and state‑of‑the‑art infrastructure for plant biochemistry, chemical synthesis, molecular biology, metabolomics, plant growth (incl. hydroponics) and crop phenotyping. In‑house metabolomics and mass spectrometry infrastructure provides targeted and untargeted metabolite analysis, while imaging‑based mass spectrometry offers spatial analysis of oxime intermediates and specialized metabolites. Molecular and transcriptomic infrastructure support RNA analysis, in situ hybridization and spatial transcriptomics. Bioinformatics expertise and computational infrastructure are available to enable integration of tissue‑specific, spatial and mutant transcriptomic datasets.

Principal supervisor

is Professor, D. Sc. Birger Lindberg Møller, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, E-mail blm@plen.ku.dk, Direct Phone: +45 20 43 34 11.

The PhD programme

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