Organisation/Company Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier ITQB NOVA
Research Field Chemistry » Other
Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Master Positions
Country Portugal
Application Deadline 23 Apr 2025 - 23:59 (Europe/Lisbon)
Type of Contract To be defined
Job Status Full-time
Hours Per Week 35
Offer Starting Date 10 Apr 2025
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme
Reference Number 029/BI/2025
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
Applications are invited for a Master Fellowship in the scope of an internal ITQB NOVA project (IC223011).
Scientific Area: Chemistry.
Academic degree: Applicants should hold an MSc degree in the areas of Computational Chemistry, Computational Biochemistry, Computational Biology or Computational Physics, with a final score no lower than 16/20.
Other requisites:
We are looking for a young, highly motivated and creative researcher, looking forward to embracing a challenging project to advance simulation of membrane pores. Candidates should:
1. have experience in molecular dynamics simulations;
2. have experience in the simulation of coarse-grained biomolecular systems, preferably of biological membranes;
3. have experience in the development of coarse-grain molecular dynamic parameters;
4. have experience with the Linux operating system and scripting languages such as Python;
5. be interested in developing innovative research and in progressing as scientists;
6. have capacity to supervise younger students;
7. be proficient in spoken and written English;
8. be available to start in April 2025;
9. be enrolled in a PhD, or in a non-academic degree course, in accordance with the Article 6th of "Regulamento de Bolsas de Investigação da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. from FCT", law in force.
A one-page motivation letter must be included stating the candidate's expertise and motivation for developing this project.
Working Plan: The candidate will employ specific simulation and analysis methods to evaluate and further develop the Martini coarse-grained force-field, towards a more realistic description of pore formation in membranes. The selected candidate will:
1. characterize the current state of the Martini force-field in the formation of pores;
2. identify structural and dynamic determinants responsible for any lack of representativity in pore formation;
3. study pore formation in conjugation with the presence of membrane-active peptides;
4. propose new force-field parameters that bring Martini poration better in line with expected behavior.
Applicable Law and Regulations: Status of Scientific Research Fellow, approved by Law number 40/2004, of August 18th, changed and republished by Ordinance 202/2012 of August 27th and changed by Ordinance 233/2012 of October 29th and by Law 12/2013 of January 29th and by Ordinance 89/2013 of July 9th and by the Ordinance 123/2019 of August 28th;
Regulations for Research Fellowships from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in force (https://files.diariodarepublica.pt/2s/2019/12/241000000/0009100105.pdf).
Working Place: The work will be carried out in the Multiscale Modeling Lab at ITQB NOVA, under supervision of Doctor Manuel N. Melo.
Duration of the fellowship: The fellowship will have the duration of 6 months, eventually renewable, expected to start in April 2025, on a full-time basis, according to Fellowship Regulations of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P.
Selection procedure: The evaluation procedures will be based on a ranking of the candidates' CVs. Interviews will be carried out for the top ranked candidates only if their CV scores are within a short range of one another. The CV evaluation and interview will then have a weight of 50% each. If interviews are not necessary, selection will be made solely by ranking the eligible applicants' CV scores.
Application documents: The application should be formalized in a cover letter indicating the corresponding fellowship reference together with the following documents: detailed Curriculum Vitae, degree certificate for MSc and BSc degrees including final grades converted to the Portuguese system. All documents should be in a single pdf file, preferably sent by email and mentioning the reference below. If the MSc/BSc degrees have been conferred by a non-Portuguese higher education institution, the selected candidate must obtain the certificates of the degree recognition, issued by the Portuguese Directorate General for Higher Education or by a Portuguese Public Higher Education Institution, until the signature of the contract. Regarding this issue, please consult the website of the Portuguese Directorate General for Higher Education: https://www.dges.gov.pt/en.
Notification of candidates: All the candidates will be informed of the final result by e-mail.
Deadlines and procedures for complaints and appeals: If the result is not favorable, the candidates have a period of 10 working days, after the disclosure of the results, to comment, if desired, in a prior hearing of interested parties, in the terms provided for in the Code of Administrative Procedure.
Application period: 10 April to 23 April 2025.
Applications should be sent to:
Doctor Manuel N. Melo
m.n.melo@itqb.unl.pt
Ref. 029/BI/2025
ITQB NOVA
OEIRAS
#J-18808-Ljbffr