Timothy Mercer

The University of Queensland is offering two fully funded PhD positions at the BASE Facility, focusing on the development of mRNA therapeutics and next-generation medicines. The first project, 'Development of mRNA Cancer Medicines,' aims to create novel mRNA medicines targeting blood cancers, combining advanced RNA technologies, bioinformatics, and hands-on laboratory work. The second project, 'Computational Design of mRNA Medicines,' centers on developing new algorithms and software to optimize mRNA medicines, integrating computational biology with experimental validation. Both projects are supervised by Professor Timothy Mercer and Dr Helen Gunter at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), providing access to world-class facilities and a collaborative research environment. Successful candidates will receive a living stipend of $36,400 per annum (tax free, 2025 rate, indexed annually) and full tuition coverage. Applicants should have a strong academic background in relevant fields such as molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, or software engineering. The application deadline is 3 November 2025. Interested candidates should submit an expression of interest (EOI) and may contact the supervisors for further information.