Enzyme/metabolic engineer

Salary Competitive

Octarine's mission is to solve our greatest health challenges by enabling innovative cannabinoid and psychedelic therapeutics. Many neurological and psychological conditions are poorly served by current drugs, leaving physicians, patients, and their families desperately seeking alternative therapies, sometimes illegally. Cannabinoids and psychedelics are poised to offer breakthrough therapies for these debilitating conditions, but to realize the full potential of these molecules, issues with their production and undesirable properties must first be solved. Octarine is perfecting a biological approach to producing improved & novel cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules with tailored modes-of-action. Our proprietary technology combines synthetic biology,


Job description

We're looking for an experienced biological engineer with a background in metabolic and / or enzyme engineering to lead our efforts to produce natural and novel molecules with therapeutic function. In this role you will use a range of bioinformatics and “omics” tools to identify and test promising enzyme candidates leading to the production of target high-value molecules, use a range of protein modeling and mutagenesis techniques to generate improved enzyme variants with eg increased activity, substrate range, stability etc, and finally engineer yeast cell-factories to produce target molecules by fermentation.


Our ideal candidate will be able to handle as many of the following scientific areas as possible:

- Gene hunting: A proven track record elucidating biosynthetic pathways to high-value molecules.  

-        Enzyme engineering: An ability to analyse gene/protein sequences and identify hot spots for mutagenesis and generate and screen for variants with improved function.

-        Metabolic engineering (particularly in yeast): Proven track record of engineering microbial cell factories to produce target molecules de novo. As well as identify production bottlenecks and design and implement genetic strategies to overcome them.


Other useful (non-scientific) attributes which will be viewed favourably include

-        Well organized: As a small start-up things often move very fast! You will need to have exceptional organizational skills to keep up

- Team player: Our research team functions as a well-oiled machine, working together to efficiently design and test hypotheses. You'll need to thrive in a team environment and have fantastic communication skills to become a successful cog in our machine.

- The right mind-set: A start-up can at times be a chaotic and highly dynamic environment, priorities can quickly change so you must be flexible enough to change direction.

- Responsibility: We're a small company with a flat hierarchy and we expect you to take responsibility for your role in it. You should be comfortable making important decisions on the direction of our research, and confident enough to see them through to completion.


Professional requirements

- PhD in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, protein engineering or a related field

- Experience supervising students / technicians

- Demonstrated ability to successfully complete metabolic and / or protein engineering projects eg through scientific publications and patents


What we can offer

Octarine is a young biotech company expanding rapidly to become a world leader in the field. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an ambitious and fast-paced company and play an active role in our growth and future success. We're a friendly and social bunch and provide a fun but scientifically stimulating work environment. We're also based in the center of one of Europe's most vibrant cities, and in a country known for its high quality of life and exceptional work / life balance.

For more information or questions please contact us at nickmilne@octarinebio.com

Perks and benefits

This job comes with several perks and benefits

Free lunch
Free lunch

Enjoy a free catered lunch with your colleagues, every day.

Flexible working hours
Flexible working hours

Time is precious. Make it count. Morning person or night owl, this job is for you.

Free coffee / tea
Free coffee / tea

Get your caffeine fix to get you started and keep you going.

Near public transit
Near public transit

Easy access and treehugger friendly workplace.

Social gatherings
Social gatherings

Social gatherings and games; hang out with your colleagues.

Free friday beers
Free friday beers

Friday is something special, let's enjoy a beer together.

See all 14 benefits

Working at
Octarine

Octarine (www.octarinebio.com) was founded on the principle that nature holds the key to solving some of today’s most pressing issues, offering an unprecedented array of bioactive molecules that can radically transform human and planetary health. Utilizing our core expertise within engineering microbial cell factories and editing and re-designing enzymes, we enhance natures potential with new bioactive molecules overcoming their key limitations. Octarine core programs focus on perfecting novel, and improved cannabinoids and bioactive tryptamines a for a range of applications within human and planetary health.

Read more about Octarine

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