Life science Postdoctoral position available

Highlights:

1. Our lab has recently demonstrated that the snoRNA HBII-52 that is not expressed by people with Prader- Willi syndrome regulates alternative splicing of the serotonin 5 HT2C receptor.

2. We have now identified more than eight other pre-mRNAs that are regulated by the snoRNA HBII-52. The project will aim to a) understand the mechanism of snoRNA action, b) identify targets for other snoRNAs from the Prader-Willi critical region, c) develop mechanisms to substitute the loss of snoRNAs .

3. We are looking for a post doc with previous experience in RNA to join our team that studies pre-mRNA splicing. More information about the research is found at http://www.stamms-lab.net/
4. The position is funded by the NIH until 2013.

PhD studentship in Biology

Highlights:

1. A PhD studentship is available immediately in the Structural Biology Group at the ESRF (http://www.esrf.fr/UsersAndScience/Experiments/MX)

2. The goal is to further the knowledge of the mechanism of phosphoryl transfer as catalysed by phosphoryl transferase enzymes. To reveal the fine details of the reaction mechanism you will study enzyme - transition state analogue complexes by combining high-resolution X-ray crystallography with solution 19F –NMR.

3. The combination of these techniques has already provided a model for the reaction mechanism of b-phosphoglucomutase and the study will now be extended to systems, in particular protein kinases, that are important as potential targets in the treatment of cancer. The studentship is based in the Structural Biology Group at the ESRF which provides state of the art facilities through the Partnership for Structural Biology (http://www.psb-grenoble.eu/).

4. The work is a collaboration with the group of Prof. Jonathan Waltho, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of Sheffield, UK (www.shef.ac.uk/mbb/) where the 19F –NMR experiments will be conducted.