- Job area
- Research & Development
- Category
- Other
- Location
- Marcq-en-Barœul, France
- Contract type
- Permanent Contract
- Experience
- 5 to 10 years
Job description
About Lesaffre Institute for Science and Technology :
Our Mission: Create new best-in-class yeast, fungal and bacterial strains by combining classical genetic breeding methods with modern bioengineering approaches to ultimately power Lesaffre’s Mission of “Working together to better nourish and protect the planet”
Our Approach: We couple classical genetic breeding methods with modern molecular biology, computational analysis, system biology, and a high-throughput Biofoundry-approach to bioengineering to generate new fungal, yeast strains and bacterial strains that fit the needs of a wide portfolio of biomass and precision fermentation applications. To this end, Lesaffre has built the largest biological foundry for advanced bioengineering of France and developed an advanced multisite genetic research and development ecosystem that combines powerful resources in France and the USA.
Our Scope: We create new microbes for industrial biotechnology applications including baking, food and feed, flavors and fragrances, brewing, winemaking, distillers, bioethanol, biobased platform and specialty chemicals, plant protection, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals.
Responsibilities:
- As a senior member of the Microbial Engineering team within the Bioengineering Center of Excellence (Lesaffre Institute for Science and Technology), you will be the point of reference and subject-matter expert for any of the Lesaffre’s group metabolic engineering programs for development and improvement of yeast, bacteria and fungi, and you will be often the scientist-in-charge delivering specific bioengineered organisms within commercially-oriented organism engineering programs.
- Your metabolic engineering responsibilities will include (nonexclusively): deep understanding of microbial and plant metabolism and biochemistry, pathway design and modeling, theoretical yield calculations, technoeconomic analysis of bioengineering processes, black box models of metabolisms, biosynthetic enzyme selection, synthetic biology, design of experiments for pathway prototyping, plate-scale models of fermentation development, pathway debottlenecking, transcriptomics data interpretation, be fluent and able to converse on analytical chemistry and fermentation processes.
- The main assignments will focus on genetic engineering of yeast and bacteria, with metabolic engineering of fungi as secondary, but mission-critical, responsibility.
- Study, design, develop metabolic pathways or bioengineered organisms for a range of Lesaffre fields of interests, from baking, brewing, winemaking, yeast extracts, feed, food, biofuels, flavors, fragrances, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals by collaboratively using a combination of high-throughput synthetic and system biology, statistics, innovative molecular and classical breeding technology, synthetic biology and Biofoundry approaches.
- By working within a matrix structure involving a complex array of teams across multiple continents, Lead the science and engineering of programs and projects aimed at pathway prototype design of de novo engineered strains, as well as programs and projects aimed at improving lead production strains.
- Independently troubleshoot technically complex problems involving organisms engineering, metabolism, fermentation and downstream processing, and propose solutions or experimental plans to resolve or correct for them.
- Maintain high-quality documentation of your work and discoveries, in the forms of written reports, technical presentations, electronic lab notebooks, internal database records, and software documentation.
- Report to leadership on progress and anomalies, supply advice to leadership on strategy, budgeting and projects prioritization, engage in developing studies on feasibility, preliminary statements of work, technical development plans.
Qualifications
Desired Experience and Capabilities
- PhD in chemical engineering, bioengineering or any other biological subject (microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology is preferred) but plus 5+ years of laboratory experience in any 3 of these fields: industrial microbiology, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology for industrial biotechnology.
- Deep and proven knowledge of yeast and bacterial biochemistry and physiology are essential; fungal physiology knowledge is a plus.
- Expertise in molecular genetics, synthetic biology, genetic engineering, biochemistry, experimental design, metabolic modeling, with a proven record of accomplishment of delivering innovation by creatively combining multiple approaches.
- Demonstrated ability to drive innovation and strain improvement projects for industrial biotechnology applications.
- Facility with programming in R or Python and their application to data analysis and statistics. Experience with best practices for collaborative software development (version control systems, test-driven development, good documentation habits) are desired.
- Experience with Constraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) models applied to industrial microbiology processes.
- Demonstrated organizational ability to meet the demands of multiple concurrent projects.
- Ability to collaborate efficiently and effectively with multiple internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong curiosity, drive, motivation, and comfort with taking fast decisions with limited information, and with working in areas of biology previously unknown to you and, at times, your peers.
- Ability to travel internationally to research and development sites at least 2 weeks per year.
- The ability to master verbal and written communications in English is a prerequisite; candidates with multiple years of study or work experience abroad will be given preference.
Company description
A key global player in fermentation for more than a century, Lesaffre, with a 2,2 billion euro turnover, and established on all continents, counts 11,000 employees and more than 90 nationalities. On the strength of this experience and diversity, we work with customers, partners and researchers to find ever more relevant answers to the needs of food, health, naturalness and respect for our environment. Thus, every day, we explore and reveal the infinite potential of microorganisms.
To nourish 9 billion people, in a healthy way, in 2050 by making the most of our planet’s resources is a major and unprecedented issue. We believe that fermentation is one of the most promising answers to this challenge.
Lesaffre – Working together to better nourish and protect the planet.