A PhD position in structural biology is available at the department of biochemistry of the Biocenter of the Julius Maximilians University, Wuerzburg/Germany.

The topic of the work will be the structural organization of the SMN complex. This megadalton-sized molecular machine assembles U snRNP particles, the basic building blocks of the spliceosome. Genetic defects of its name-giving core component, the SMN protein, are the cause of the devastating neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Our group has recently solved the structure of key components of the SMN complex bound to substrate Sm proteins (Grimm et al., Mol Cell. 2013 49(4):692-703). The planned work will continue these efforts and characterize large entities of the SMN complex.

The successful candidate will work mainly in the field of crystallography and optimize, express and purify protein constructs and complexes for structural studies.

Please send your application including a letter of interest, curriculum vitae and academic certificates to:

Dr. Clemens Grimm e-mail: Clemens.Grimm@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de Lehrstuhl für Biochemie Biozentrum der Universitaet Wuerzburg Am Hubland D-97074 Wuerzburg

-------------------------------------------------- Dr. Clemens Grimm Institut für Biochemie Biozentrum der Universität Würzburg Am Hubland D-97074 Würzburg Germany e-mail: Clemens.Grimm@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de phone : +49 0931 31 84031 -------------------------------------------------