CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow's problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries. For more information, visit cimmyt.org

CIMMYT seeks a highly motivated, innovative, rigorous Postdoctoral fellow to work on Genome Editing (GE) Platform for CIMMYT’S target crops in our biotechnology projects. Working in our modern laboratory facilities, the successful applicant will join a discovery team exploring and availing novel genetic diversity for use in our worldwide crop breeding programs. Current projects include gene editing for multiple traits across a range of CIMMYT crops. The selected scientist will prepare and publish innovative research in collaboration with internal and external colleagues from public sector as well as industry partners. She/he will participate in capacity development activities, such as hosting visiting technicians or scientists, and overseeing student research projects. CIMMYT is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship, and the successful applicant must be committed to implementing best practices in stewardship and laboratory operations. This position reports to the head of biotechnology opportunities.

The position is based at CIMMYT’s campus in Texcoco, State of Mexico, located 45 km northeast of Mexico City, Mexico.

Specific duties:

• Design and develop constructs for genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9 and other GE systems.
• Develop transient expression and stably expressed lines with CRISPR systems in CIMMYT’s target Crops such as maize, wheat, ground nut, pearl millet, sorghum etc.
• Use Agrobacterium-mediated and biolistic transformation techniques to generate transgenic events.
• Analyze edited events via different molecular tools and sequencing.
• Apply sgRNA libraries for genome wide editing experiments.
• Contribute to protocol optimization and technology exploration.
• Contribute to phenotyping of the edited lines.
• Project proposal writing and manuscript writing.
• Present and publish research data.
• Supervise students, visiting scientists.