• Funded by project – PUSH: Unlocking the unused capacity of bacterial metabolism through the rational design of substrate transporters.

• Starting January 2026 the latest

• What you will do:
  • Engineer sugar transporters using cutting-edge AI and molecular dynamics simulations
  • Design thermostable transporter variants for biotechnology applications
  • Collaborate with experimental team from Microbial Bioengineering Laboratory@Masaryk University, Czechia for the real-world validation

• Who are you:
  • MSc degree in Biophysics/Bioinformatics/Computational Chemistry or related
  • Experience with MD simulation – a must, applicants without this skill will not be considered
  • Experience with protein structural bioinformatic will be considered as advantage
  • Comfortable with Linux OS
  • Eligible to work in Poland  -> have MSc diploma recognized in Poland
  • Very good command of English

• What We Offer:
  • Access to extensive computational resources of Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (2 clusters among world TOP 500)
  • Work on pioneering biotechnology applications
  • Mentorship from experienced protein engineering team
  • Full funding whole 4 years of studies, at approximately 3800 PLN after taxes – the scholarship is increased after passing mid-term evaluation at the end of second year year of studies. Please note that costs of living in Poland are rather very favorable compared to most EU countries
  • International collaboration
  • Located in Poznań, very favorable city for international researchers

• How to apply:
  • Currently, the official application procedure is being set-up, hence all interested candidates who are eligible are invited to contact Prof. Jan Brezovsky for details/questions/declaration of interests. They will be contacted when the official application call is open.

Aleksandra’s cool sci-art was just published as the front cover of the current Issue of Plant Physiology.  Congrats!!!

Biała-Leonhard W, Bigos A, Brezovsky J, Jasiński M, 2025: Message hidden in α-helices – towards a better understanding of plant ABCG transporters’ multispecificity. Plant Physiology 198: kiaf146. full text

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are ubiquitous in all organisms and constitute one of the largest protein families. The substantial expansion of this family in plants coincided with the emergence of fundamental novelties that facilitated successful adaptation to a sessile lifestyle on land. It also resulted in selectivity and multispecificity toward endogenous molecules observed for certain ABC transporters. Understanding the molecular determinants behind this intriguing feature remains an ongoing challenge for the functional characterization of these proteins. This review synthesizes current achievements and methodologies that enhance our mechanistic understanding of how ABCG transporters, which are particularly numerous in land plants, specifically recognize and transport endogenous compounds. We examine in silico modeling and the recent advancements in the structural biology of ABCGs. Furthermore, we highlight internal and external factors that potentially influence the substrate selectivity of those proteins. Ultimately, this review contributes to rationalizing our current capacity to fully understand how plants orchestrate membrane transport fulfilled by these proteins.