Make an archaeon do something it's never done before
We are a small team with a large thesis: that the right organism, engineered with precision and operated with discipline, can make bioplastic production deterministic. Predictable enough to underwrite with capital, reliable enough to displace petrochemical incumbents. That organism has been studied for forty years and industrialised by no one. We're changing that.
How we work
Biology is noisy. Fermentations drift. Organisms do what they want, not what you designed them to do. Most bioprocess development absorbs this as an irreducible cost. You run the experiment, measure the outcome, adjust, repeat. We think that loop can be compressed by an order of magnitude if you build the right measurement and modelling infrastructure around the biology from day one.
That means we care as much about how we characterise and predict biological behaviour as we do about the molecular engineering itself. If you build a pathway and it works once, that's an anecdote. If you build a pathway and you can predict when and why it will work again, that's a platform.
We are early-stage. There is no bureaucracy, no committee, no approval chain between you and the work. The organism is real. The first provisionals are filed. The engineering problems are hard and consequential. If you want to do the most interesting archaeal genetics of your career, this is the place.
Synthetic Biology / Molecular Biology
THE ROLE
You will engineer Haloferax mediterranei for industrial PHA bioplastic production. This means working at the frontier of archaeal genetics, a domain where the tools are newer, the literature is thinner, and the impact of each experiment is disproportionately large compared to working in E. coli or Bacillus.
You will design and execute genetic modifications using the organism's endogenous Type I-B CRISPR-Cas system, construct and validate heterologous metabolic pathways for expanded copolymer production, and develop the strain engineering pipeline that converts computationally designed enzyme variants into wet-lab-validated production organisms.
CRISPR-based genome engineering — Gene knockouts, knock-ins, and CRISPRi-mediated expression tuning using H. mediterranei's endogenous Type I-B system. Expanding the organism's genetic toolbox: promoter libraries, selection markers, chromosomal integration strategies.
Metabolic pathway engineering — Introducing heterologous biosynthetic pathways for 4HB, HHx, and other non-native PHA monomers. Balancing carbon flux between growth, native PHBV production, and engineered copolymer targets.
PHA synthase variant validation — Cloning, expressing, and characterising computationally designed PHA synthase variants with altered substrate specificity. Correlating in vivo polymer composition with predicted structural modifications.
Strain characterisation — Growth physiology, PHA accumulation kinetics, polymer composition analysis (GC-FID, NMR), and phenotypic stability under production-relevant conditions.
Process interface — Working at the boundary between strain engineering and fermentation development. Understanding how genetic modifications translate (or don't) from shake flask to bioreactor.
WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
PhD or equivalent research depth in microbiology, molecular biology, or synthetic biology. Postdoc experience is valued but not required if the PhD work is strong.
Hands-on CRISPR experience — ideally in non-model organisms. If you've made CRISPR work in something other than E. coli or mammalian cells, we want to hear about it. Experience with Type I CRISPR systems or archaeal genetics is a significant advantage.
Archaeal or extremophile biology — experience working with halophiles, thermophiles, or other extremophilic organisms. If you've never worked with archaea but have deep experience making genetic tools function in recalcitrant non-model organisms, that transfers.
Metabolic engineering or pathway construction — experience introducing multi-gene heterologous pathways and characterising their output. Understanding of carbon flux, precursor supply, and cofactor balancing.
PHA biology — familiarity with PHA biosynthesis pathways, PHA synthase enzymology, and polymer characterisation methods. Not strictly required but shortens the ramp significantly.
Tolerance for ambiguity — this is a stealth-stage company working on an organism that has never been industrialised. Many things will not work on the first attempt. You need to be the kind of person who finds that energising rather than demoralising.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
This is not an academic postdoc. The goal is not publication — it's production. Every experiment exists in the context of "does this get us closer to a strain that makes polymer at industrially relevant titres." If you want freedom to explore interesting biology for its own sake, this is the wrong role. If you want to solve hard biology problems that have a direct line to a product, this is exactly right.
WHAT THIS IS NOT
Don't see your role?
We are stealth-stage and building selectively. If you have deep expertise in archaeal biology, halophilic microbiology, PHA bioprocess development, or adjacent areas and want to be part of what we're building. Tell us what you'd bring. We read every message.
Early hire