Postdoctoral Researcher in Experimental Medical Science

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is consistently ranked as one of the world's leading universities. There are about 47,000 students and more than 8,800 employees in Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. We are united in our effort to understand, explain, and improve our world and the conditions of people.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Gender equality, equal opportunities, and diversity are fundamental principles for all parts of our operations.

Workplace Description

The position is located at the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, within the Department of Experimental Medical Science, specifically in the research group for Medical Structural Biology.

The department focuses on elucidating molecular mechanisms for health and disease through advanced imaging and biophysical methods.

The research group investigates Contractile Injection Systems (CIS) – natural protein machines that bacteria use to deliver molecular payloads. The group's goal is to understand the structure, function, and application of CIS in both biopesticide development and targeted antimicrobial delivery. The group is interdisciplinary and consists of expertise in molecular microbiology, structural biology, bioinformatics, and protein engineering. The team currently includes a PI, a PhD student, and a bioinformatician.

The workplace has a strong international collaboration, particularly with the Halberg group at the University of Copenhagen (insect neuroendocrinology and physiology) and the Collin group (infection research) at Lund University. The postdoctoral researcher will primarily work in Lund but is expected to participate in collaborative projects across the Øresund region, including experimental coordination with researchers in Copenhagen and data collection at national facilities such as MAX IV (Lund), SciLifeLab (Stockholm), and CFIM (Copenhagen) for cryo-EM and cryo-ET.

The group values a collegial and supportive research environment with open communication, structured supervision, and a strong emphasis on work-life balance.

Within the research group, we cherish a good working environment with respect and care in our relationships with one another, and strive for a workplace that is perceived as developing and stimulating for all employees. We constantly work to create conditions for job satisfaction, development, and participation for all employees. We care about both physical safety and the psychosocial work environment.

Description of the AMBER Project Context

This postdoctoral position is part of the EU co-funded research project AMBER, Advanced Multiscale Biological Imaging using European Research infrastructures, which will address scientific and sectoral gaps in biological imaging from molecular, through cellular, to tissue, organ, and organism levels, coordinated by the LINXS Institute of Advanced Neutron and X-ray Science.

AMBER is funded by the EU's Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) COFUND program.

Approximately 15 postdoctoral researchers will be recruited in the fifth call in 2026, each position is for 36 months.

AMBER has six collaboration partners: Lund University/MAX IV, Sweden, European Spallation Source (ESS), Sweden, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), France, International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines (IMOL), Poland, and Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, UK.

Your work may involve clinical and biomedical projects. It may also include technology development work aimed at combining imaging techniques and data analysis to provide a more integrated picture of life processes related to health and disease. As a postdoctoral researcher within the AMBER program, you will have access to unparalleled medical, biological, and methodological opportunities, with a profound potential impact on Europe's next generation of research and researchers. Upon completion of the AMBER program, you will be exceptionally well-equipped to advance your career in academia, at infrastructures, within the health and MedTech sectors, and beyond.

For more information about the total number of postdoctoral positions announced within the AMBER co-fund project, visit https://www.euraxess.se/jobs/392999 (https://www.euraxess.se/jobs/392999).

Interviews will begin in April/May 2026. For more information about AMBER, the application and evaluation process, etc., visit: ambercofund.eu (https://ambercofund.eu)

Project Description

This interdisciplinary project focuses on the discovery, structural analysis, and engineered redesign of bacterial Contractile Injection Systems (CIS) – evolutionarily conserved protein complexes that function as nanosyringes to inject molecules into target cells. CIS has great potential as programmable tools for precision delivery of biomolecules with applications in infection biology, biomedicine, and sustainable agriculture.

Please see the full advertisement via the link: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:891067/ (https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:891067/).

The Faculty of Medicine is an operational area within Lund University, responsible for education and research in medicine, care, and health. Education takes place in close collaboration with healthcare and is well anchored in the faculty's strong research tradition. The faculty's research spans a wide field within experimental basic research, patient-centered clinical research, and health science research. The Faculty of Medicine, with over 1,800 employees and 2,700 students in Lund, Malmö, and Helsingborg, is a knowledge-intensive meeting place for students, teachers, and researchers from around the world.

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