Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) in Molecular Plant Transport Physiology

03.07.2025, Wissenschaftliches Personal

About us The Bienert Lab is part of the TUM School of Life Sciences of the Technical University of Munich located in Freising-Weihenstephan.

The main objective of the research group ‘Crop Physiology’ is to understand the physiology of plants down to the structure and function of genes and proteins as well as relevant mechanisms, which allow optimizing biotechnologically and agri-culturally important quality and yield traits and the generation of crops, which are beneficial for the society in terms of food-security (improved plant performance and stress tolerance) and food-safety (generation of healthier food).

We focus in particular on the characterization of molecular metalloid, water and hydrogen peroxide transport mechanisms and on the identification of substrate-selectivity features in transport proteins with a focus on plant aquaporins.

Your tasks:
• Characterization of biochemical features, transport rates, selectivity localization, expression, regulation and physiological function of specific transport proteins in heterologous expression systems in crops and (trans-genic) model plants.
• A unique set of Arabidopsis and barley transporter "mutants” are ready to be exploited.
• You will also be involved in the training of students.

Your qualifications and skills:
• You have a PhD or equivalent degree in biology, agri-cultural biology or any related field.
• You have a strong background in molecular plant nutri-tion and molecular plant transport physiology or cell biology.
• You are interested in plant transport proteins and their selectivity.
• You have an advanced wet-lab experience in molecu-lar biology and in reverse genetic approaches.

You fit to us:
• You are an outstanding and highly-motivated postdoc-toral researcher with the ambition and commitment to achieve scientific excellence in a world-class university with state-of-the-art facilities and scientists from all over the world.
• You show a very strong team spirit and have the ability to work independently.
• You have a passion in unraveling biological mecha-nisms, solving scientific questions and a high degree of self-initiative and individual responsibility to succeed in your tasks.

Our offer:
• An excellent interdisciplinary research environment at the interface of molecular biology and plant nutrition.
• A friendly and productive working atmosphere in a highly motivated team.
• A full-time position, for initially up to three years (exten-sion possible), starting preferentially in September 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.
• A gross salary up to E13 TV-L. Salary will be deter-mined in accordance with the German collective wage agreement in public services.

What you need to know
Individuals with severe disabilities are given preference, if having the same aptitude & qualifications. The TUM seeks to increase the proportion of women in those areas where they are underrepresented, therefore applications from women are explicitly en-couraged.

Data protection

Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Patrick Bienert patrick.bienert@tum.de Tel. +49 8161 71 3961