The goal of this project is to produce the health-promoting compounds from broccoli in a microbial organism to enable intake of well-defined doses of compounds.

Background:

We are all encouraged to eat more broccoli to minimize our risk of developing cancer. Glucoraphanin is the major glucosinolate associated with the health-promoting effects. This has primed a desire to develop it as dietary supplements. We like to 1) implement transport engineering to prevent premature secretion of pathway intermediates and 2) optimize microbial metabolism for both substrate and co-factors.  

Activities:

a) Assemble the multigene constructs and test for production of glucoraphanin.

b) Optimize production of precursors with CrispCas-mediated editing of endogenous metabolism to increase availability.

c) Evaluate fitness of glucoraphanin-producing strain by state-of-the-art ‘omics technology (proteomics and RNAseq transcriptomics).

Work environment:

We expect you to be enthusiastic, dedicated and eager to learn and advance your skills in many disciplines (e.g. research, oral and written presentations). In return, we provide a stimulating, international research environment. where you have lots of opportunity to advance your skills within basic microbioal biotechnology.