Research possibilities for the SEAS postdoctoral research fellow in marine natural product chemistry

This position is connected to the key research theme marine bioprospecting, with focus on low molecular weight compounds, so called specialised molecules, from marine sources. The position is open to an incoming candidate, see mobility rules. The successful candidate will be employed at the Department of Chemistry (UiB). Information about the supervisor, research group and research possibilities for the fellow is available below. For further details about the research possibilities please contact Associate Professor Monica Jordheim.

The supervisor: Jordheim has more than 20 years of experience in extraction, isolation and structural elucidation of natural products, with a particularly focus on polyphenols and pigments. One of Jordheim’s research focuses has been purity determinations, including NMR analyses, in order to fully evaluate the application value of isolated natural products. Jordheim has extensive experience in supervision at different levels, including industrial PhD projects. 

The choice of co-supervisor from another department (or national research/company partners) than the postdocs host department will be selected dependent on the submitted project profile.

Research opportunities: The Jordheim research group is working with different marine materials spanning from marine angiosperms in the coastal zone, to seagrasses, algae and marine deep-sea sponges. Chemical ecology as costal monitoring tool, biosystematics studies of marine plants and revealing novel structures with new properties are among the research topics. The last years the group has increasingly focussed on marine algae bioprospecting aimed at isolation of high-value products. In addition to optimizing green extraction conditions for seaweeds, performing qualitative and quantitative analyses, an interdisciplinary approach favouring bio-guided isolation has been established. The group works closely with academic and industrial partners.

Infrastructure: The updated instrumentation facilities at Department of Chemistry (UiB) are highly qualified for isolation, purification and identification purposes. They include ASE-350 extraction instrument, different column chromatographic techniques, preparative HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography), puriFlash® XS (Flash chromatography) instrument and a FCP-C instrument (Fast Centrifugal Partition Chromatography). Analytical HPLC/UHPLC, Low-Resolution and High-Resolution MS (LR-MS and HR-MS), NMR (NNP: 500 MHz, 600 MHz, 850 MHz); Different Gas Chromatographic instruments (GC/MS, GC/FID, GC/TCD/FID), IR instrumentation (FTIR, NIR, FT-NIR, VIS/NIR) and several UV-Visible Spectrophotometers. ICP-MS is available on location (Department of Earth Science). Collaborating partner (Professor Lars Herfindal) at Department of Clinical Science (UiB) are in possession of ascreening platform for cancer drug efficacy and toxicity studies in zebrafish larvae, which makes it possible to perform in vivo studies early in a drug development process.

The full advertisement in Jobbnorge will be available after august 1, 2021. Call deadline is October 31, 2021.