Research Technician

About TUMCREATE

TUMCREATE is a multidisciplinary research platform of the Technical University Munich (TUM) at the Singapore Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE). We are joining forces with universities, public agencies, and industry for the advancement of future technologies.

Our research group for the the project ‘Developing High Nutritional and Sensorial Quality Proteins from Fishery and Aquaculture By-products‘ includes researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and TUM where we propose developing an integrative approach to efficiently fractionate and convert fish processing waste into palatable, nutritive, and health-promoting food ingredients. The new processes learned from this project will help Singapore solve its emerging waste problem and produce health-oriented aquaculture by-products as novel foods; the techniques that will be developed can contribute to creating an aquafood circular economy model.

Please visit www.tum-create.edu.sg for more information about TUMCREATE.

Job Purpose/Objective of the Position:

The human digestive tract harbors the most densely organized microbial ecosystem and metabolic activities of this microbiome contribute to the digestion, modulation and functionalization of food constituents. Food-microbiome interactions critically contribute to the nutritional value of alternative dietary protein sources and addressing open questions with these interactions emerges as a key requirement in the design of sustainable urban food systems. In a two-step experimental design, we propose to characterize the impact of intact proteins and its fractions of soybean, algae, or fishery proteins, on the composition and function of the intestinal microbiome and its metabolite profile by modelling food-microbe and metabolite-host interactions. In the first step, we apply in vitro digested food constituents to healthy human microbiomes representative of the population in Singapore using continuous culture systems ex vivo. The second step evaluates nutritional benefits by applying culture supernatants and purified metabolite fractions of the colonic fermentation of the continuous culture systems to intestinal organoid model systems. Intestinal organoids are excellent models to evaluate intestinal homeostasis and, most importantly, the multi-cellular organization of the ex vivo organ cultures reflects native tissue environments in order to modulate gut health. The cellular network of the epithelial barrier integrates a variety of different immune- and metabolic sensors and allows us to verify the nutritional and beneficial interplay of food and microbiome.

Job Responsibilities:

• Collection and processing of human fecal samples
• Perform in vitro digestion from raw materials
• Generate complex media for human ex vivo gut chemostat
• Perform continuous culture systems using human stool samples of healthy individuals and characterization of food-microbiome interactions
• Cell culture experiments with reporter cell lines and human organoids

Job Requirements/Competencies:

• Master’s degree in fields of Life Sciences, Microbiology, Biotechnology, Biology, Nutrition, Molecular Biology, Biomedicine
• 3 years of relevant working experience

What TUM CREATE offers you:

• Competitive salary that commensurate with experience
• Medical insurance
• Good amount of leave/vacation days
• Vibrant, modern and positive working environment in Singapore
• Campus-sited office location with a host of facilities
• In-building perks including gym, game room and coffee room

Applications:

Please send your application including cover letter and CV to hr@tum-create.edu.sg.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

We look forward to your application.