Research Fellow in Downstream Processing of Yeast Hydrolysates

About us

The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) supports the £12M Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA). The Hub, led by the University of Bath, is a national centre that brings together world-leading expertise across a range of academic and industrial partners (Spokes). The focus is on enabling the transition to sustainable and responsible food production through the development of precision fermentation and cultivated meat technologies and their integration into existing food supply chains. The UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering is a key Spoke within CARMA focusing on bioprocess intensification and the recovery and recycling of nutrients between precision fermentation and cultivated meat processes. The department is one of the leading international centres for bioprocess research. It has excellent research facilities including a full-scale £30M bioprocessing pilot plant and related process analytical eq uipment.

About the role

This CARMA post will involve experimental work on laboratory and pilot scale membrane filtration processes for the recovery, concentration and recycling of nutrients from Yeast-based precision fermentation processes. It will also encompass significant analytical work of feed and permeate streams to analyse for nutrients, metabolites and inhibitory compounds. There will also be collaboration with CARMA colleagues on upstream fermentation processes and evaluation of recovered nutrients as cell culture media supplements. The post is available immediately for a period of 3 years and will be based in the new UCL East Manufacturing Futures Lab on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

About you

Candidates will be required to hold a PhD in a relevant discipline (Biochemical or Chemical Engineering or related subject e.g. Biotechnology, Food Technology) and possess experience in a number of the following areas: membrane process design, op eration and scale-up, other downstream process operations or microbial fermentation, biochemical characterisation techniques. The post will require a high degree of interaction with project partners so excellent teamworking and communication skills are required. The post holder will be responsible for undertaking original experimental work, reporting on project progress and the preparation and submission of research papers arising from these and related studies. For informal enquiries please contact Prof. Gary Lye (g.lye@ucl.ac.uk), MFL Director and CARMA Co-Director.

What we offer

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/. Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality. This appointment is subject to UCL Terms and Conditions of Service for Research and Support Staff

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