Postdoctoral Research Associate in Nucleic Acid Computing (Fixed Term)

About the role

The University of Cambridge is recruiting a 2-year fixed-term Postdoctoral Research Associate in Nucleic Acid Computing and Molecular Programming, within the laboratory of Dr Gamze Gürsoy. The position sits administratively under the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics but involves day-to-day wet-lab work in the Department of Genetics. It is primarily experimental and suits someone with a strong background in synthetic biology, molecular biology, biochemistry or molecular engineering, rather than a mainly computational role.

The research programme aims to develop scalable molecular and synthetic biology tools for genome engineering, applied to the challenge of genetic privacy. The postholder will design, build and experimentally validate programmable nucleic-acid systems that sense defined human genomic sequences and convert them into engineered DNA outputs, helping to measure useful genetic information while limiting exposure of the underlying sequence.

Key responsibilities

• Develop research objectives and proposals, and carry out individual and collaborative research projects
• Write up research work for presentation and publication
• Analyse quantitative data from experiments, such as assay performance and failure modes, and use it to guide further work
• Plan and manage own research and administration, with guidance from the PI as required
• Contribute to graduate student research skills and take part in seminars, workshops and interdisciplinary collaboration
• Assist with grant administration, report writing for funding bodies and, possibly, supervise student projects and give limited instruction to classes

Required profile

• A PhD in biochemistry, molecular biology, chemical biology, bioengineering, synthetic biology, biotechnology or a closely related experimental field, or close to completion
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and experimentally testing nucleic-acid systems beyond routine or kit-based molecular biology
• Reasoning about nucleic-acid sequence, structure, molecular recognition, enzymatic activity and function, and translating it into new experimental systems
• Experience managing own workload

Required skills

• Experience in one or more of: nucleic acid computing or molecular programming, genome and nucleic-acid engineering, DNA nanotechnology, functional nucleic acids, synthetic biology or nucleic-acid diagnostics and biosensing
• Sometimes familiarity with Python, R or another quantitative analysis environment

Applicants apply online through the University's recruitment system, providing two academic referees and a three-page description of recent research. Interviews follow shortly after the closing date (20 November 2026).