Protein pores are central to biotechnology and synthetic biology, mediating the transport of ions and molecules across membranes. Their finely tuned assembly, featuring defined subunit numbers, pore diameters and lengths, combined with highly diverse sequences, offers rich opportunities to create bespoke interior and exterior chemistries for sensing and sequencing.

We have extensive nanopore engineering expertise, but have only just begun to cover the potentially vast design space. Recently, we have engineered photoresponsive nanopores and extended pore lengths, leading to unexpected performance advances as biotechnological tools. We welcome motivated candidates from diverse backgrounds to join us in programming a broad range of pore-forming proteins. By combining state-of-the-art experimental, theoretical, and/or computational techniques, candidates will systematically explore and characterise structural variation, probe the fundamental principles of protein folding and assembly, and create functions that do not occur in natural evolution.