Project Overview

The Antimicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Research Group (AMR IRG) is a unique translational research and entrepreneurship program aimed at solving the growing threat of resistance to antimicrobial drugs. In synch with the National Strategic Planfor Antimicrobial Resistance, the AMR IRG was launched in January 2018 as a research programme funded by the National Research Foundation,under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme. The program was renewed for a second phase that began in January 2023 and will continue through the end of December 2027.

AMR IRG is made up of biologists, engineers, and clinicians from MIT and Singapore, at career stages ranging from student to postdoctoral researcher to research scientist, all of whom work closely with a core team of research specialists. The group shares a beautiful state-of-the art research facility and is united by a commitment to providing a supportive intellectual environment where members can learn, grow, and contribute to solving a pressing societal problem.

Optimization of antimicrobial use has been recognized as a top priority in combating the rise of antimicrobial resistance. Yet, when one seeks medical care for an infection, clinical tools are lacking to rapidly determine whether the infection is bacterial, and if so, which antibiotics will resolve the infection. Laboratory-based tests are available that can determine antibiotic susceptibility. However, the cost of these tests, the infrastructure required, and the turnaround times (longer than an office visit) limit their impact. Ideally, clinicians would know what medicine to prescribe that will be effective for a given patient within the space of an office visit.

Our team in AMR IRG is working to develop a multi-plex test that can address this gap for a common resistance mechanism that is widespread in the Asia Pacific region, while retaining performance metrics that are required for clinical adoption. We are seeking a creative, curious, motivated postdoctoral researcher with strong organizational skills to join this effort. The successful applicant will be motivated to develop technology that can be translated to the clinic on the timescale of AMR IRG's second phase.

Responsibilities

Work to understand the technology platform, developed in AMR IRG, that will serve as the basis for this project.

Planning and conducting experiments with the aim of producing superior, cost-effective, and user-friendly medical diagnostic tests.

Technology development, including protein engineering and integrated biosensor device development.

Relevant skills and experience include:

-applied molecular biology for biomolecular engineering

-microbial cell culture-assay development

-validation of tests usingclinical samples

-statistics

-high throughput screening

-flow cytometry

-ELISA

-knowledge of biomolecular reaction kinetics and transport (mass, heat, fluids)

-optical and electrochemical sensing techniques

Job Requirements

• PhD in Chemical/Biomolecular/Biological Engineering or related field (engineering or quantitative science preferred)
• Commitment to reading and synthesizing peer-reviewed and patent literature
• Ability to work well with others
• Careful record keeping
• Strong communication skills (scientific writing and oral presentation)
• Publication in peer-reviewed academic journals is expected as an outcome.
• Skill in experimental design (systematic studies, informative controls)

Interested applicants are invited to send in their full CV/resume, cover letter and list of three references (to include reference names and contact information). We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.