PhD position at the University of Regensburg - Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Structural and functional analysis of RNA-polymerase I transcription complexes

Methods:

• Single particle cryo-Electron Microscopy
• X-ray crystallography
• Biochemical techniques
• Computational modelling

Funding:
Emmy-Noether Programme (DFG) funded position with 65% TV-L E13. The PhD candidate will be embedded into the Regensburg International Graduate School (RIGeL), which provides a structured PhD program.

Background:
RNA polymerase I (Pol I) is a 14-subunit, 590 kDa molecular machine dedicated to the transcription of ribosomal RNA in all eukaryotic organisms. Pol I synthesizes up to 60% of all RNAs and its regulation is a key determinant of cellular growth and appears to be altered in human cancers.
Recent advances in structural biology enabled us to solve the structure of Pol I in an inactive conformation (Engel et al., Nature 2013) and to start deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of the ‘cellular workhorse’ (Engel et al., Nature Communications 2016; Neyer et al., Nature 2016; Engel et al., Cell 2017).

The project:
In the ongoing effort to understand the regulation of Pol I on a molecular level in my newly established Emmy-Noether research group at the University Regensburg, we will now trap transcription complexes in specific states and analyze them using cryo-EM. Starting from the design of an experimental strategy, this project will cover all stages of biochemical analysis, sample- and grid-preparation, hands-on negative stain- and cryo-EM data collection and computational modelling.

For details, please contact christoph.engel@ur.de