Microbiology is about more than wearing bookish spectacles; a lot of fascinating lab work is involved.  In this posting, tar sands water shall be investigated by utilizing “whole cell bacterial biosensors for the detection of organic compounds (naphthenic acids and others) in tailings ponds wastewater”.  Some compounds are more desirable than others, not unlike weeds being labelled invasive if they’re in a cow’s pasture or back lawn.  Therefore, the outcome of data gathering will be “to print pollutant inducer promoter sequences and clone them as transcriptional lux reporters on plasmids using Gibson assembly.” As a posting meant for biology and other hard science students, clearly this is something for those with lab and microbiology experience.  “The work will require some method development in organic extraction of naphthenic acids, but also molecular biology, and protein-analyte biochemistry (mass spectrometry) experience would be helpful.”

Sounds exciting, right! So if this turns your crank, or more aptly tadpoles your pond, then please send resume, cover letter, transcript and two references to Dr.  Shawn Lewenza slewenza@athabascau.ca.