From owner-biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Mon Jun 10 15:48:12 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7193317AAD for ; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:48:11 +0100 (BST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id DCC6B17AED for ; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:48:05 +0100 (BST) Received: from niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (niobium [193.62.192.41]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D12717AAD for ; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:47:52 +0100 (BST) Received: (from news@localhost) by niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.8.8) id PAA25423 for biophys-list@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:47:51 +0100 (BST) X-Authentication-Warning: niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk: news set sender to using -f From: S.K.Roberts@lancaster.ac.uk (Stephen Roberts) X-Newsgroups: bionet.biophysics Subject: Post doctoral position Date: 10 Jun 2002 15:47:48 +0100 Organization: BIOSCI/MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre Lines: 60 Message-ID: <3D04BD80.F122AC39@lancaster.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: news@net.bio.net X-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1D7AD17AAD for ; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:47:41 +0100 (BST) X-Received: from zooty.lancs.ac.uk (zooty.lancs.ac.uk [148.88.16.231]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7523D17A65 for ; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:47:21 +0100 (BST) X-Received: from mail.lancs.ac.uk ([148.88.1.10] helo=marl.lancs.ac.uk) by zooty.lancs.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1) id 17HQS0-00003J-00 for biophys@net.bio.net; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:47:20 +0100 X-Received: from bsc014a00001.lancs.ac.uk ([148.88.144.143] helo=lancaster.ac.uk) by marl.lancs.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1) id 17HQS0-0006bu-00 for biophys@net.bio.net; Mon, 10 Jun 2002 15:47:20 +0100 X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en-gb] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en X-To: biophys@net.bio.net To: biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Sender: owner-biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Postdoctoral position in electrophysiology Biology Department, Lancaster University Applications are invited for a post-doctoral position for 2 years. The project will take advantage of recent advances in the use of the yeast Pichia pastoris as a heterologous protein expression system to investigate the kinetic properties of K+ and Ca2+ transporters. Applicants should have experience or an interest in electrophysiology and ion transport across membranes. Applicants should have, or expect to have, a PhD or equivalent in an appropriate discipline. Salary: according to qualifications and experience. Closing date: 02/07/02 Informal enquiries to Dr Stephen Roberts (s.k.roberts@lancaster.ac.uk) or Professor Brian G. Forde (b.g.forde@lancaster.ac.uk). Further Details The Post This is a fixed term post, funded by the BBSRC, for a maximum of 2 years. The post will be in the Department of Biological Sciences at Lancaster University under the supervision of Dr S. Roberts and Professor B. G. Forde. Background Ion transporters play important roles in many diverse aspects of cell biology and physiology. Insights into these processes therefore require a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms and regulatory controls which determine the activity of these transporters. In recent years, major advancements have been made in the understanding of transporters using a combination of electrophysiological and molecular biological techniques. Of particular importance has been the cloning of ion transporters and the use of heterologous expression systems in which isolated transporters are functionally studied using electrophysiological techniques. In animal research, much success has been achieved by the functional expression and electrophysiological characterisation of transporters in Xenopus oocytes and, to a lesser extent, cell cultures. However, the use of animal expression systems has been much less successful for the investigation of plant and fungal transporter with a number of reports that a variety of transporters fail to express functionally. By contrast, the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been considerably more successful for the expression of plant and fungal transporters than either of the animal expression systems. However, the inability to gain sufficient level of expression in yeast cells has often precluded functional analysis of many plant and fungal transporters using electrophysiological techniques. The present proposal aims to take advantage of the much higher expression levels which can be attained using the methylotropic yeast, Pichia pastoris, to allow the electrophysiological characterisation of transporters which, to date, has not been possible. The project will focus on the characterisation of two cloned plant transporters (HvHAK and LCT1) for which there is no electrophysiological analysis of transporter activity. However, the development of the patch clamp technique for its application to Pichia pastoris will provide a unique opportunity to investigate the biophysical properties of a wide variety of transporter types. --- .