Master Thesis

The demand for environmental-friendly technologies is increasing significantly due to the depletion of natural resources and global pollution of the environment. In this regard, scientists from all over the world are struggling to invent technologies for “green” production of electronics that would be CO 2-neutral, not fuel-consuming, and fully biodegradable. The recent discovery of high-conductivity Cable Bacteria united an international multidisciplinary team and launch a Pathfinder EU project aimed to develop novel Protein-Based Next-Generation Electronics. The announced master project is implemented in this Pathfinder EU project and should establish the foundation for bioelectronics made from Cable Bacteria proteins. The work will be conducted at the Institute of Biological Information Processing - Bioelectronics (IBI-3) of the FZ Jülich, where an international and multidisciplinary team studies and develops functional assemblies of biological components and electronic devices with the aim to improve current state of the art cell-chip communication.

**Your Job**:
The Master thesis project aims to develop a novel biochemical approaches for the manipulation of conductive cable bacteria fibers. The secret of cable bacteria conductivity is in their periplasmic fibers, which are highly conductive. These fibers should be extracted from the cable bacteria for further processing. Electrical and electrochemical characterizations of these fibers will be performed to investigate their intrinsic properties. Furthermore, chemical cell fixation and fluorescence in situ hybridization protocols will be established and optimized to examine the internal structures of the fibers. In addition, the biocompatibility and long term stability under cell culture conditions will be evaluated. On the long term, these fibers will be used to decorate microelectrodes for the recording of action potentials from electrogenic cells.

Your tasks will include:

- Performing and optimizing protocols for the chemical extraction of biological fibers and fixation of bacterial cells connected to microelectrodes
- Modification of microcelectrode surfaces with conducting protein fibers and their morphological characterization
- Electrical and electrochemical characterization of native and engineered conductive protein fibers
- Testing the stability and biocompatibility of the protein fibers for electrogenic cells
- Establishing and maintaining cell cultures
- Communication with other scientists from the EU project

Further information on the Microbial Electricity background:
Project Link:
**Your Profile**:

- Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) chemistry, biotechnology, material sciences, physical chemistry or biology
- Interest in the field of Bioelectronics
- Ability to communicate with scientists and technicians from various disciplines
- Good written and spoken English
- Independent and analytical way of working
- Advantageous, yet not mandatory, are experiences in programming and data analysis
- Passion for science

**Our Offer**:
We work on the very latest issues that impact our society and are offering you the chance to actively help in shaping the change We support you in your work with:

- An interesting and socially relevant topic for your thesis with future-oriented themes
- Ideal conditions for gaining practical experience alongside your studies
- Multifaceted work in an interdisciplinary and international setting, as well as a cooperative work environment
- Fantastic research equipment facilities
- International collaboration with the scientific groups from the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Cyprus
- Forschungszentrum Jülich located closely to Belgium and the Netherlands with strong links to the ABCD Region (Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, and Düsseldorf) which is one of the leading high-tech regions in Europe.