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The Department of Chemistry is offering a postdoctoral scholarship within biochemistry. The scholarship is full-time for one year with access 1 Oct 2025 or by agreement. Last day to apply is 17 Sep 2025.
Departmental specific information
Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest institutions of higher education with over 35,000 students and 4,200 faculty and staff. We are characterized by world-leading research in several scientific fields and a multitude of educations ranked highly in international comparison. Recent breakthroughs at Umeå University include deciphering the molecular mechanisms of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 system and its repurposing into a tool for genome editing, a method developed at Umeå university that was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The host lab is located within the cross-disciplinary Chemical Biological Centre (https://www.umu.se/en/kbc) at Umeå University and are affiliated with national Centre of Excellence – Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) (https://www.umu.se/en/ucmr/). The labs are fully equipped for biological and chemical research with access to excellent facilities and state-of-art equipment and platforms in a creative, inspiring, international and highly interactive environment. Facilities include Protein Expertise Platform, X-ray, proteomics, NMR (850-400 MHz), cryo-EM and Biochemical Imaging Centre (confocal, SIM, FLIM, spinning disk, TIRF, STORM).
Project description
Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved self-eating process mainly purposed to eliminate or recycle dysfunctional cellular organelles or unused proteins. Autophagy plays an important role in development and ageing and has been associated with diverse human diseases including cancer, neurodegeneration and pathogen infection. Emerging evidence shows that autophagy machinery also plays a role in several autophagy-independent processes. These “noncanonical” autophagy (NCA) pathways occur independent of part of the core autophagy machinery and play an important role in immune regulation and inflammation, modulation of the host-pathogen interaction, regulation of neuronal signaling and anti-cancer immunity.
Using a combination of cell biology, structural biology and chemical genetic approaches, we have elucidated fundamental mechanisms underlying autophagosome formation. Our laboratory has elaborated a novel mode of action for virulent bacteria (Legionella pneumophila, Vibrio cholerae) affecting host autophagy ((eLife 2017, J Cell Sci 2021, J Cell Biol 2022). We have identified novel chemotypes for autophagy modulation and new cellular pathways (e.g. the cholesterol-GRAMD1A axis) involved in autophagy regulation (Angew Chem 2017, Nat Chem Biol 2019, Autophagy 2021). Recently, we have made new findings in NCA. We identified the novel lysosomal targeting compound Inducin and ESCRT-III targeting compound Tantalosin that induce NCA (ChemBioChem 2023, Angew Chem 2022, PNAS 2024). We discovered a new pathway, the sphingomyelin-TECPR1 axis and TECPR1-ATG5–ATG12 as an alternative E3-like ligase for ATG8 lipidation in NCA (EMBO Rep 2023). This project will combine biochemical, cell biological and novel chemical approaches to understand molecular mechanisms of canonical and noncanonical autophagy.
The techniques used in the project include protein expression and purification, biochemical characterization, and in vitro reconstitution, cell imaging, western blotting, knock-out/down.
The project is interdisciplinary with strong collaborations across scientific disciplines. The 1-year fellowship is financed by Knut and Alice Wallenbergs foundation (KAW), with the total amount of 348 000 SEK, is tax-exempt with start 1 Oct, 2025 or by agreement.
Qualifications
To qualify as a postdoctoral scholarship holder, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirement must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the decision about scholarship recipient.
Priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree before that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organisations, military service or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area.
Doctoral degree should be within in biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, or in another relevant field.
Additional requirements are: The successful candidate is expected to independently further their own studies while actively collaborating with other members of the research team. Independence and a good ability to collaborate are therefore essential requirements. Good command of written and spoken English is also a requirement.
Meriting criteria are: Experience in protein expression and purification, molecular cloning, T cell biology, cell imaging, western blotting, and/or gene knock-out/down techniques are considered strong merits, as is a good record of research publication
Application
The application should be written in English or Swedish, and attached documents should be in Word or PDF format. The application should be registered via Umeå University’s e-recruitment system Varbi and submitted by the deadline 17 Sep 2025.
A full application should include:
- Cover letter including research interests, qualifications, and motivation for applying (max 2,000 characters with space),
- Curriculum vitae (CV) with publication list,
- Verified copy of doctoral degree certificate or documentation that clarifies when the degree of doctor is expected to be obtained,
- Verified copies of other diplomas, list of completed academic courses and grades,
- Copy of doctoral thesis and max 3 relevant articles,
- Other documents that the applicant wishes to claim.
- Contact information to two persons willing to act as references.
Further information
For more information, please contact Prof. Yaowen Wu, Department of Chemistry, https://www.umu.se/en/research/groups/yaowen-wu/
We look forward to receiving your application!