Research Associate/ Senior Research Associate in AI-Enabled Enzyme Engineering for PET Biorecycling

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Research Associate/ Senior Research Associate in AI-Enabled Enzyme Engineering for PET Biorecycling
Requisition ID: 29827

Location: Newcastle, GB

Contract Type: Fixed Term

Working Pattern: Full Time

Posted Date: 29 Oct 2026

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 12 November 2026

The Role
The Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre (EBIC - ), of which ICOS ( ) is a member, brings together scientists from leading UK institutions in a mission to engineer the properties and functions of microorganisms, creating more effective ways to monitor the environment, remove pollutants and support a circular bioeconomy.

We are seeking a Research Associate or Senior Research Associate to manage the experimental delivery of an AI- and bioinformatics-augmented, high-throughput platform for discovering and engineering enzymes that depolymerise polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PETase-like sequences will be prioritised, expressed, screened and improved through rapid Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycles.

You will combine synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, and bioinformatics to improve PETase, MHETase/BHETase, and PET-binding modules for PET degradation.

You will work closely with Professor Natalio Krasnogor, the wider ICOS and EBIC teams and international collaborators at PROIMI-CONICET in Argentina. You will establish reproducible protocols and structured data capture, coordinate delivery against milestones, publish high-quality research and help translate the platform towards industrially credible PET valorisation. Appointment at Senior Research Associate level will reflect a stronger record of independent management, supervision, partnership working, translation, research development and commercial/industrial experience.

This post includes travel within the UK and internationally, including visits to collaborator laboratories and conferences, as required for the project and subject to reasonable adjustments.

A completed doctorate in a relevant discipline is essential for appointment at either level.

This role is full time, fixed term for a period up to 31.03.29

Key Accountabilities

• Steer the development of an end-to-end, experimental reproducible workflow for PETase discovery and optimisation, from candidate sequence to experimentally validated enzyme performance
• Apply bioinformatic filtering, active-site and motif analysis, structure prediction, clustering and diversity-aware selection to prioritise compost-metagenome-derived PETase-like sequences supplied by project partners
• Design and construct expression libraries using molecular cloning, heterologous microbial hosts and high-throughput cell-free expression; establish quality controls for expression, activity and strain or construct validation
• Plan and execute rational, directed-evolution and AI-guided enzyme engineering cycles targeting thermostability, catalytic efficiency, substrate engagement and performance on solid PET and capture all strain engineering steps in CellRepo
• Develop and validate a tiered screening stack and assays on real post-consumer materials
• Implement and troubleshoot automated, miniaturised workflows using platforms such as Opentrons OT-2, acoustic liquid handling and microarray or plate-based robotics, with robust design-of-experiments and batch-effect controls
• Capture experimental results as analysis-ready, provenance-rich datasets and close successive DBTL loops by using the data to update candidate ranking and mutation-selection strategies
• Evaluate PETase, MHETase/BHETase and PET-directed binding-module combinations, quantify synergy and identify conditions relevant to scalable monomer recovery and circular upcycling routes
• Analyse data rigorously, including kinetics, uncertainty, reproducibility and cross-platform or cross-site comparability; maintain excellent laboratory records, code, protocols and standard operating procedures
• Work collaboratively across biology, chemistry, engineering, computing and industrial translation; coordinate experiments and exchange of materials and data with EBIC and international partners
• Communicate results through peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, conference presentations, stakeholder activities and responsible public engagement, while observing safety, research integrity, data management and Responsible Research and Innovation requirements
• Willingness and ability to travel within the UK and internationally, including visits to collaborator laboratories and conferences, as required for the project and subject to reasonable adjustments

Additionally, for Senior Research Associat e:

• Provide scientific and technical management for major work packages, defining priorities, decision criteria, risks, resources and delivery plans across the computational, automation and wet-laboratory components
• Coordinate partner-facing delivery and translate platform outputs into decision-grade evidence for biofoundry, enzyme-technology, recycling and other industrial stakeholders
• Mentor and supervise researchers and students, establish inclusive and reproducible working practices, and build capability across the team
• Initiate follow-on research, contribute substantially to grant and associateship applications, and help shape the strategic development and external profile of the EBIC/ICOS programme
• Explore and contributes towards technology translation and exploitation

The Person (Essential)
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Essential for Research Associate and Senior Research Associate:

• Substantial hands-on research experience in synthetic biology, molecular biology, microbial biotechnology, enzyme engineering, biochemistry or a closely related area
• Demonstrable experience of molecular cloning, DNA/RNA manipulation, microbial transformation or genome engineering, cultivation and validation of engineered organisms or constructs
• Experience designing and optimising heterologous protein-expression systems and functionally characterising recombinant enzymes
• Experience applying directed evolution and/or DBTL workflows, including library design, mutagenesis, high-throughput screening and genotype-phenotype interpretation
• Ability to develop robust, reproducible experimental workflows with appropriate controls, traceable records, quantitative analysis and critical troubleshooting
• Experience using generative AI for biotechnology and bioinformatics to inform experimental design, such as protein or nucleotide sequence analysis, motif/active-site assessment, clustering, structure prediction or variant prioritisation
• Practical computational and data-analysis skills sufficient to create transparent, reusable analyses and to work effectively with computational collaborators; familiarity with Python, R or equivalent tools is advantageous
• Evidence of delivering original research to a high standard, normally including peer-reviewed publications and presentation of work at scientific meetings
• Ability to manage priorities and milestones independently while contributing constructively to a multidisciplinary, multi-partner research programme
• Excellent written and oral communication, including the ability to explain complex experimental and computational work to specialists and non-specialists and to write protocols that other laboratories can reproduce
• Ability to undertake laboratory work involving microorganisms, molecular biology and enzyme assays in accordance with institutional risk assessments, training and safety procedures

In addition, essential for Senior Research Associate:

• A sustained record of independent or substantially self-directed research management, with high-quality outputs appropriate to career stage
• Experience coordinating complex work packages or collaborative projects, managing scientific risk and coordinating delivery across disciplines or organisations
• Experience supervising, mentoring or developing researchers and/or students and promoting an inclusive, high-performing research culture
• Evidence of contributing to research funding, partnership development, technology translation, work in or engagement with industrial and other non-academic stakeholders
• An additional record of independent research management, supervision and collaborative delivery commensurate with the senior level of the role

Desirable for both Research Associate and Senior Research Associate:

• Research experience with PETases, polyester hydrolases, plastic biodegradation, biocatalysis or enzymatic polymer recycling
• Experience with microbial strain engineering, cell-free protein expression or rapid prototyping of enzyme variants
• Laboratory automation experience, including robotic liquid handling, Opentrons, acoustic dispensing, assay miniaturisation, microarrays or high-throughput plate workflows
• Experience developing fluorescence- or absorbance-based enzyme assays and/or chromatographic quantification using HPLC, UPLC, LC or GC
• Experience of protein structure analysis, machine learning, protein language models, generative design or other AI-enabled approaches to protein engineering
• Experience analysing metagenomic data or discovering enzymes from environmental sequence datasets
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