Research Assistant (Zuercher Lab) - Generative Biology Insititute

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas.

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics
  
  

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society.

Welcome to the Generative Biology Institute:

Led by Founding Director Jason Chin, the Generative Biology Institute (GBI) at the Ellison Institute of Technology is tackling the key challenges in making biology engineerable and thereby unlocking the unrivalled power of biology for the benefit of humanity.

The vision of the GBI is to lay the foundations for engineering biology and unlock its potential for good. To achieve this, we must overcome two key challenges. First, we need the ability to write in the natural language of biology, enabling the rapid and scalable synthesis of entire genomes with precision. Second, we must understand what to write - determining which DNA sequences will generate biological systems that perform the desired functions. Addressing these challenges will allow us to harness the full power of biology to create transformative solutions across health, agriculture, clean energy and more.

The Generative Biology Institute commenced operations in 2025, occupying newly renovated bespoke space in the Oxford Science Park. The team will later move to a purpose-made facility in the Oxford Science Park, currently under construction. Once complete, this state-of-the-art facility will include more than 40,000 m² of research laboratory and office space. It will house over 30 groups and up to 600 employees at scale, focused on solving the two critical challenges in making biology engineerable and applying the solutions to addressing the global challenges encapsulated in EIT's Humane Endeavours.

The Zuercher Lab

We are seeking ambitious, creative, and highly skilled Postdoctoral Researchers to join the Zuercher Lab

at GBI. The Zuercher Lab, led by Principal Investigator Jerome Zuercher, focuses on two interconnected areas, with many projects involving aspects of both topics (Genome synthesis and Genetic Isolation).

Genetic Isolation

A direct consequence of the universality of the genetic code is the possibility for genetic information to be transferred between evolutionarily distant species. Such horizontal transfer of genetic information (as opposed to vertical genetic transfer, where information is passed on from an organism to its progeny) is common in nature and has shaped evolution over billions of years. In the context of genetic engineering, however, this type of genetic spillover is highly concerning. Prevention of interference of artificial genetic information with natural biology is critical to allow biotechnological progress to be both safe and ambitious.

Furthermore, biotechnology will play a central role in addressing pressing challenges in food security, pharmaceutical development, sustainable fuel sources, and efficient carbon fixation. Thus, essential parts of the economy will increasingly rely on bioproduction facilities harbouring tailor-made microbes. It is therefore critical that such facilities are extremely reliable. However, due to the universality of the genetic code, engineered organisms are just as susceptible to viral invasion as natural organisms. In fact, a single viral particle that finds its way into a bioproduction facility can force its operational shutdown.

Altering the genetic code of a cell provides an opportunity to render natural and synthetic genetic information incompatible. This breakthrough offers a means to protect the environment from genetically engineered organisms and, vice versa, engineered organisms critical for bioproduction from viral invasion. Through concerted efforts in genome recoding and translational engineering, it was possible to create the first organism with a synthetic genetic code. Since this organism "speaks a different language" than organisms found in nature, it is genetically isolated; it can neither give nor receive genetic information from the environment.

The lab continues the development of altered genetic codes to increase the safety of biotechnology and aims to rewrite even the most complex biological systems in alternative synthetic genetic codes.

Genome Synthesis

Our ability to write DNA has recently expanded to the genomic scale. The possibility of defining every single base in the genome of a cell enables manipulation of the most fundamental cellular properties, such as the genetic code.

However, current genome synthesis methods are slow, narrow in scope, and limited in scale. To date, the genomes of only two bacteria have been successfully synthesized. This project aims to develop methodologies to make the synthesis of model organism genomes (i.e. E. coli) more rapid and enable the synthesis of the genomes of non-model bacteria to broaden the scope of genome synthesis.

The ability to routinely synthesize the genomes of a diverse set of organisms will not only allow reprogramming of the genetic code but also facilitate testing of generative genome designs. Ultimately, the combination of microbial genome synthesis and artificial intelligence will enable biological design at the organism scale with implications in bioproduction, human health, agriculture, and beyond.

Learn more at jzlab.bio

How To Apply

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. In your cover letter, please clearly explain your fit, interest, and relevant experience for joining the group.

All applications must be submitted exclusively though the EIT job portal. If you would like to discuss this role in more detail, prior to submitting an application, please contact Jerome Zuercher at jeromez@eit.org. Due to the volume of applications, the review and decision process may take 3-6 months.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist in scientific studies and experiments by collecting and analysing data under the guidance of the senior scientists
• Perform routine laboratory tasks such as preparing samples, setting up equipment, and maintaining lab safety protocols
• Analyse experimental data using software tools. Prepare reports and presentations of findings
• Support the Research Group in the development of written materials, including publications, conference presentations and laboratory protocols