PhD Position in Plant Biology and Biochemistry (Plant Immunity) | PhD position in biology (m/f/d) (1/2026)

Job Summary

This PhD position offers a motivated candidate the opportunity to join an ERC-funded project, "CooPAIRation," investigating plant immunity and plant-microbe interactions at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB). The core research focuses on understanding how plant immune receptors, specifically Nucleotide-binding, Leucine-rich-Repeat proteins (NLRs), cooperate to trigger immune responses and how this knowledge can be leveraged for sustainable disease resistance in crops. Day-to-day tasks include conducting phylogenetic analyses, routine molecular biology and protein biochemistry work, performing immune response assays in plants and protoplasts, and documenting/presenting results for publication. The ideal candidate holds a Master’s degree in biology or a related field, possesses very good written and spoken English skills, and has some prior lab experience in molecular biology or biochemistry. This role provides a modern, international research environment with excellent facilities and strong career development support.