About this role
PDRA in Metabolomics and Marine Biotechnology
Location: SAMS, Oban
Contract Type: Fixed Term; 2.5 years
The Role
The successful candidate will join a dynamic marine biotechnology team focused on the ‘up-cycling’ of marine waste streams into high value metabolites and products (such as lipids and pigments). This research will focus on developing novel cultivation strategies for marine heterotrophic protists grown on different waste streams, optimising growth and metabolite production. Additionally, the role will use proteomics to analyse the extracellular enzyme composition of the different marine protists and may use genomic data to ‘reverse-engineer’ cultivation media design.
The candidate will be working at SAMS as part of the three-partner “Marine Mass Cascade” (MaMaCas) project funded as part of the Green ERA-HUB “Sustainable Production and Utilisation of Biomass” call. Consequently, it is expected that the candidate will be available to travel to EU partners for project meetings. The candidate should be comfortable writing and presenting reports, with an ambition to publish their cutting-edge science. The candidate will also have a wider role helping deliver marine microbiology and biotechnology research at SAMS and contribute to a vibrant laboratory environment. Finally, depending on the candidates’ interests, the post holder may contribute to teaching on the SAMS undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes.
Our Ideal Candidate
We are looking for a motivated Post-Doctoral Researcher with an enthusiasm for developing biotechnological solutions to problems. A PhD related to metabolomics, lipidomics and/or fermentation is essential. It is desirable for you to have demonstratable experience cultivating marine organisms and scaling production up to 10 L bioreactor scale, and/or direct experience using HPLC, GC-MS and GC-FID in your research. An interest in synthetic biology and bioinformatics will be helpful. You should be comfortable working in the laboratory, and able to work collaboratively as part of a small research team.
Interested?
We would love to hear from you. If you have queries on the job and would like to talk these through before applying, please email these through, in the first instance, to [email protected]
Applications must include CV and Cover Letter and should be sent by email via the ‘Apply’ button above ([email protected]) quoting Job Ref. ‘D17/26.DG’ in the subject heading.
Closing date for application is 12th October 2026 - Interviews to be held shortly after.
This post is available for UK sponsorship where candidates hold a relevant PhD qualification.