Job Description

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is one of the highest ranked scientific research organisations in the world. The Headquarters Laboratory is located in Heidelberg (Germany), with additional sites in Grenoble (France), Hamburg (Germany), Hinxton (UK) and Monterotondo (Italy).

The group of Dr. Stephen Cusack at EMBL Grenoble is engaged in structural and mechanistic studies of replication and transcription by segmented negative strand RNA virus of human health interest, notably influenza virus and bunyaviruses. The approach encompasses structural studies by X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM, mechanistic and functional studies in vitro and in cells, including with polymerase host cell cofactors, and structure based anti-viral drug design.   Recent breakthrough publications by the group have been published in Nature and Cell: 
-Structural insight into cap-snatching and RNA synthesis by influenza polymerase. Reich S. et al. Nature. 2014 PMID: 25409151 
-Structure of influenza A polymerase bound to the viral RNA promoter. Pflug A et al. Nature. 2014 PMID:25409142 
-Structural insights into bunyavirus replication and its regulation by the vRNA promoter. Gerlach et al. Cell. 2015 PMID:26004069. 

The candidate will work on structural and functional aspects of the mechanism and regulation of RNA synthesis by bunyavirus RNA polymerase building on the structural data and extensive knowhow now available in the laboratory. 

Qualifications and Experience

He/She should have a PhD in structural molecular biology, an interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms of RNA virus replication and ideally experience in one or more of the following: expression and purification of large complexes in insect cells, biochemistry of protein-RNA complexes and high resolution structural analysis.