PhD Student (f/m/d) | Designing biomolecular crystallization and precipitation processes Full-time

PhD Student Position

The newly established research group in Phase Transition Engineering (Group Leader: Dr. Leif-Thore Deck) at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems is inviting applications for a PhD Student position.

Research topic: “Designing biomolecular crystallization and precipitation processes”

The position is to be filled as soon as possible and is limited to three years.

Understanding how solids form from fluids is one of the most fundamental questions in the physical sciences. Solid assembly is pivotal to both natural and industrial systems, ranging from the manufacturing of crystalline products in the chemical and (bio)pharmaceutical industries to the formation of functional and toxic protein aggregates in living organisms. Deepening the understanding of biomolecular phase transitions therefore directly benefits both industrial and biomedical applications. The manufacturing costs of biopharmaceuticals such as peptides currently are dominated by chromatographic purification. Crystallization and precipitation are alternative purification techniques that operate at substantially lower costs, but their process design and optimization is challenging due to the complexity of the underlying phase transition.

This project focuses on the development of a liter-scale precipitation plant that comprises both the actual crystallization/precipitation setup as well as the downstream steps, where the product is separated using centrifugation, filtered, and re-dissolved. Online monitoring of the particle size distribution provides the basis for process control and optimization, which is supported by the development of digital process models in a parallel project. The performance of the plant will be characterized using model peptides before moving to active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Your tasks

• Development of a liter-scale precipitation setup for biopharmaceuticals
• Extension of the setup to incorporate both downstream manufacturing steps and an online monitoring tool
• Detailed experimental campaigns to quantify and optimize performance of the precipitation plant for various model compounds

Suitable candidates

• hold a Master's degree in the engineering or natural sciences, preferentially in chemical, bio or process engineering, physics, chemistry or related disciplines with grades above average,
• have strong interest in hardware development,
• have strong communication skills and motivation for the cooperation with colleagues
• have a very good knowledge of English
• have sufficient knowledge of German.

Knowledge and experience in process design and control are advantageous.

We offer

• A full-time position with a fixed-term employment contract in the public sector for three years, with the option of extension
• An international and interdisciplinary working environment
• A collaborative and dynamic working atmosphere
• Flexible working hours and modern working conditions

The Max Planck Society is committed to equal opportunities, gender equality and diversity. What matters to us are your qualifications, professional strengths and attitude. We therefore welcome applications from all backgrounds, regardless of gender, cultural or social background, disability, religion, age, lifestyle, ideology, or sexual identity.

One of the Max Planck Society's primary goals is to increase the proportion of women in areas where they are underrepresented. We are therefore particularly interested in applications from qualified women and would like to encourage them to apply.

The Max Planck Society is also committed to employing more severely disabled people. Severely disabled people and those with an equivalent status will be given special consideration if they are equally qualified. We therefore explicitly encourage applications from severely disabled people.

We will be assessing applications on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Please apply via our online application portal and upload your complete application documents (letter of motivation, CV, certificates, reference letters).