NASA Postdoctoral Program - Synthetic Biology in Support of NASA Science and Exploration

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on synthetic biology with the potential to revolutionize several of NASA's core missions, from aeronautics to basic science to human exploration. Candidates will use synthetic biology techniques to approach basic questions in astrobiology, particularly focusing on the history and diversity of life on earth and beyond. Projects also focus on the use of synthetic biology to support human space exploration. Current lab projects range from re-evolving proteins and creating artificial extremophiles, to producing bricks from agglutinated regolith and biomining. In-house capabilities include testing on high altitude balloons. The position is located at Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California.