Salary:

Research Associate: £37,369 - £46,970 per annum

Senior Research Associate: £48,337 - £51,258 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the chance to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 12 November 2026

The Role

The Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre (EBIC - https://ebicentre.co.uk/), of which ICOS ( https://ico2s.org ) is a member, brings together scientists from leading UK institutions in a mission to engineer the properties and functions of microorganisms, creating more effective ways to monitor the environment, remove pollutants and support a circular bioeconomy.

We are seeking a Research Associate or Senior Research Associate to manage the experimental delivery of an AI- and bioinformatics-augmented, high-throughput platform for discovering and engineering enzymes that depolymerise polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PETase-like sequences will be prioritised, expressed, screened and improved through rapid Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycles.

You will combine synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, and bioinformatics to improve PETase, MHETase/BHETase, and PET-binding modules for PET degradation.

You will work closely with Professor Natalio Krasnogor, the wider ICOS and EBIC teams and international collaborators at PROIMI-CONICET in Argentina. You will establish reproducible protocols and structured data capture, coordinate delivery against milestones, publish high-quality research and help translate the platform towards industrially credible PET valorisation.



Appointment at Senior Research Associate level will reflect a stronger record of independent management, supervision, partnership working, translation, research development and commercial/industrial experience.

This post includes travel within the UK and internationally, including visits to collaborator laboratories and conferences, as required for the project and subject to reasonable adjustments.

A completed doctorate in a relevant discipline is essential for appointment at either level.

This role is full time, fixed term for a period up to 31.03.29

Key Accountabilities

For Research Associate and Senior Research Associate:

1. Steer the development of an end-to-end, experimental reproducible workflow for PETase discovery and optimisation, from candidate sequence to experimentally validated enzyme performance
2. Apply bioinformatic filtering, active‑site and motif analysis, structure prediction, clustering and diversity‑aware selection to prioritise compost‑metagenome‑derived PETase‑like sequences supplied by project partners
3. Design and construct expression libraries using molecular cloning, heterologous microbial hosts and high‑throughput cell‑free expression; establish quality controls for expression, activity and strain or construct validation
4. Plan and execute rational,



directed‑evolution and AI‑guided enzyme engineering cycles targeting thermostability, catalytic efficiency, substrate engagement and performance on solid PET and capture all strain engineering steps in CellRepo
5. Develop and validate a tiered screening stack and assays on real post‑consumer materials
6. Implement and troubleshoot automated, miniaturised workflows using platforms such as Opentrons OT‑2, acoustic liquid handling and microarray or plate‑based robotics, with robust design‑of‑experiments and batch‑effect controls
7. Capture experimental results as analysis‑ready, provenance‑rich datasets and close successive DBTL loops by using the data to update candidate ranking and mutation‑selection strategies
8. Evaluate PETase, MHETase/BHETase and PET‑directed binding‑module combinations, quantify synergy and identify conditions relevant to scalable monomer recovery and circular upcycling routes
9. Analyse data rigorously, including kinetics, uncertainty, reproducibility and cross‑platform or cross‑site comparability; maintain excellent laboratory records, code, protocols and standard operating procedures
10. Work collaboratively across biology, chemistry, engineering, computing and industrial translation; coordinate experiments and exchange of materials and data with EBIC and international partners
11. Communicate results through peer‑reviewed papers, technical reports, conference presentations, stakeholder activities and responsible public engagement, while observing safety, research integrity, data management and Re

📌 Research Associate/ Senior Research Associate In Ai-Enabled Enzyme Engineering For Pet Biorecycling (Newcastle)
🏢 Newcastle University
📍 Newcastle