Applications are invited for the PhD course in IST Austria, with specialisation 
in structural biology of large membrane protein complexes, in particular 
complex I. 

Complex I is central to bioenergetics – it is the first and largest enzyme of 
the respiratory chain in mitochondria and bacteria. It is also involved in a 
wide range of human diseases. Sazanov lab uses the bacterial enzyme as a 
‘minimal’ model of the more elaborate mammalian complex I. We have determined, 
by X-ray crystallography, all currently known atomic structures of complex I, 
starting with the hydrophilic domain (Science 2005, 2006), followed by the 
membrane domain (Nature 2010, 2011) and, finally, the recent (Nature 2013) 
structure of the entire Thermus thermophilus complex (536 kDa, 16 subunits, 9 
Fe-S clusters, 64 TM helices). Structures suggest a unique mechanism of 
coupling between electron transfer in the hydrophilic domain and proton 
translocation in the membrane domain, via long-range (up to ~200 Å) 
conformational changes. Future studies are aimed at the elucidation of this 
mechanism and the determination of the structure of much larger mitochondrial 
enzyme, as well as other related complexes 
(https://ist.ac.at/research/research-groups/sazanov-group/). We use both X-ray 
crystallography and the most advanced single particle cryo-EM methods.

The Institute of Science and Technology is located near Vienna on a dedicated 
campus.  IST Austria is a new institute dedicated to basic research, providing 
world-class research environment and benefits. PhD program at the IST lasts 4-5 
years and involves 1 year Phase 1 with rotations in 3 different groups, 
followed by Phase 2 conducting research in the selected group. Further 
information is available at https://ist.ac.at/graduate-school/phd-program/. The 
deadline for applications is 15th of January 2015. Informal queries should be 
forwarded to Dr. Leonid Sazanov (saza...@mrc-mbu.cam.ac.uk).

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