People Archives - Bioengineering@TalTech

Open positions

New PhD postion is opened in collaboration with TFTAK!

kaisa June 9, 2025 Leave a comment

Open PhD Position in Enzyme Engineering 🔬
📍 TalTech Bioengineering Lab x TFTAK | Tallinn, Estonia

We’re excited to announce a PhD position in Enzyme Engineering focused on a systematic approach toward high-level protein production in yeast.

This is a collaborative project between the Bioengineering Lab at TalTech and TFTAK, combining cutting-edge research in strain engineering and enzyme design.

What we’re looking for:

If you’re interested in:
✅ High-throughput strain engineering
✅ Synthetic biology & enzyme design
✅ Scalable protein production in yeast

…then this could be the opportunity for you!

📅 Starting date: September, 2025

application deadline: June 30th 2025 23:59 EET

The Food Tech and Bioengineering laboratory at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) is focused on developing sustainable solutions in the bioeconomy sector. Led by Professor Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, the lab specializes in bioinformatics, metabolic engineering, and bioprocess optimization. Research efforts are directed towards creating microbial cell factories to convert waste materials into valuable products, with a focus on biosustainability and the sustainable production of food, feed, bio-chemicals, and materials.

TFTAK (Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies) is a leading Estonian R&D center specializing in innovative solutions for the food, biotech, and fermentation industries. Its fermentation competencies cover from strain development and metabolic engineering to precision fermentation and process scale-up. Dr. Steven van der Hoek’s group develops synthetic biology tools and strain engineering capabilities, focusing on precision fermentation for alternative protein production, combining systems biology, bioprocess engineering, and high-throughput screening.

Role Description

This is a full-time on-site Doctoral Researcher role shared between Bioengineering and Food laboratory in Tallinn University of Technology and TFTAK. The doctoral researcher will be involved in tool development for reliable protein production pipeline from concept to gram scale. Duties will include participating in the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle of cell factory design and process development, as well as collaborating on projects for creating microbial cell factories.

Qualifications

Research experience in bioinformatics, metabolic engineering, or bioprocess optimization
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
English at least B2 level
Ability to work in a collaborative multicultural research environment
Excellent communication and presentation skills
Master’s degree in life sciences
Master´s degree in bioengineering, bioinformatics, or related field is a plus
Experience in programming in Phyton and omics data analysis is a plus
Experience with cell factory design and optimization is a plus
Estonian language is a plus
Foreign applicants must have a valid Estonian residence permit or right of residence and a permanent legal income in accordance with the provisions of the Aliens Act.

What we offer

A fully funded 4-year PhD position starting in September 2025
Gross monthly salary starting from 2300 €
35 calendar days of paid vacation yearly
Additional benefits including paid sick leave and health insurance
Flexible working hours and supportive supervision
Access to state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and high-throughput platforms
Opportunity to work in a dynamic, interdisciplinary environment bridging academia and industry
International research collaboration and opportunities for mobility
Personal and professional development through conferences, courses, and workshops
The chance to contribute to meaningful innovation in sustainability and synthetic biology

Applying

For more info and applying please submit your CV and documents via: https://taltech.glowbase.com/positions/977

More info about applying for a PhD position in Tallinn University of Technology can be found at https://taltech.ee/en/phd-admission

People

Kristin´s exchange semester at DTU

kaisa June 16, 2025 Leave a comment

Kristin Antoi, 22-years old, 1st year MSc student in Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology who is working in Bioengineering laboratory, spent an exchange semester in Danish University of Technology (DTU), Denmark.

Kristin explained that there has been a lot of talk about opportunities to go abroad with Erasmus. She wanted to go somewhere where she could learn different subjects and supplement knowledge from TalTech and found DTU as a prospective option. “I mainly took subjects related to medicine, such as Vaccine technology, Molecular biology and diagnostics and Eukaryotic biology. One course was also about start-up entrepreneurship in food innovation, where I was involved in two ideas. We developed business models for a smoothie powder made with fruits that are about to be discarded. The other idea focused on puddings made for cancer patients who have lost their sense of taste due to radiation treatment,” explained Kristin.

Kristin spent one semester at DTU and described that the beginning was effortless since most deadlines approach towards the end of the semester. She added that one difference with Estonian subjects is that the classes did not have any practical part. There were specific practical subjects called projects but they needed to be declared separately, and unfortunately the one she was interested in, got full quickly. She, however, turned her hand to practice while working for a research group that developed microchips for medical applications. “My work entailed filling the microchips with a solution and checking their quality under microscope,” elaborated Kristin.

About life in Denmark in general, she pointed out that there are many more job offers in the biotech industry there, as the industry is already established. “The Danes have a strict work-life balance. The workdays tend to be shorter and they also leave as soon as the clock strikes. Moreover, they have a lot of public holidays, for example two additional holidays between 1st of June and Midsummer.”

To get around, Kristin experienced the true life of a Dane and bicycled everywhere, including 4 km from the dormitory to campus and back every day. “I never stepped foot in public transport,” she claimed. Everyone speaks fluent English there but as a dog lover Kristin learned one sentence in Danish: Må jeg kæle med din hund?

She found the stay fruitful as she gained an understanding about what research topics she would like to focus on in the future. She also met many great people from abroad with whom she studied together, mostly from China and Latvia.

Danish Technical University is also our partner in DigiBio project to facilitate technology transfer for building an automated high throughput strain and protein engineering platform.

Photo is obtained from Pexels

People

Petri-Jaan Lahtvee was awarded with State medal

kaisa February 6, 2025 Leave a comment

Associate professor Petri-Jaan Lahtvee was honoured with White Star Class IV State medal by Estonian president Alar Karis! 🏅

Every year, the President of Estonia gives State medal for people with very special services and devotion. The White Star State medal is awarded to persons in state or local government service, as well as in recognition of services and achievements in the fields of economics, education, science, culture or sports, or other public service.

BioEng lab is honoured to work under his supervision and care.

Huge congratulations! ✨

Photo by Priit Mürk/ERR.

People

Students in bioengineering

kaisa June 27, 2024 Leave a comment

Educating the next generation of researchers is important for sustainable science. Several master’s, bachelor’s, and guest students work daily in the bioengineering research group. Where do they come from, and how did they find their way to our lab?

Throughout this year, the bioengineering laboratory is welcoming 16 undergraduate and master’s students from six different countries, mostly from Estonia but also from as far as India, Pakistan, and Egypt, creating a diverse learning environment for the students. Involving students in research activities provides them with essential knowledge about scientific methods and hands-on experience that supplements their studies. Being actively involved, solving actual scientific problems, and seeing results inspires young people to advance further in their studies and explore yet-to-be-known topics.

Moreover, including the younger generation in active research benefits the research group as a whole. Our scientist, Srdjan Gavrilovic, who is supervising five students this year, commented: “Involving students in research is helpful in advancing more labour-intensive parts of research and exploring hypotheses.”

We also asked our visiting students, Sandra and Javeria, about their experience and how they found their way into the bioengineering lab. “We came to TalTech for one semester as part of the Erasmus Mundus scholarship. Petri-Jaan Lahtvee was our lecturer and he had an industrial project coming up with Fibenol, so he offered us this opportunity. We are just pursuing our master’s degrees, and conducting research together with an industrial producer was a wonderful way for us to explore both scopes – how research is conducted in a laboratory and how work is done in the industry. Having this experience allows us to explore both opportunities and decide whether we want to continue with PhD studies or start working in the industry. Our semester is now over, but we will stay until the end of summer and then continue our journeys.”

What an exciting era of life it is to travel and obtain experience within scientific groups internationally!

Open positions

Master’s Thesis Projects (2023 – 2024)

Alina Rekena April 16, 2023 Leave a comment

Our lab will accept two master’s thesis students (local/ international/ Erasmus academic exchange) this summer. These thesis projects combine aspects of chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, and biology to develop engineered living materials for biochemical production. The first project envisions the fabrication of functional living materials, while the second project focuses on the design and application of flow bioreactors.

The thesis projects will require two semesters for completion, starting in the summer of 2023. Therefore, students expecting graduation in the summer of 2024 are welcome to apply. We will consider students having a materials science, chemistry, biology, polymer science, chemical engineering, food technology, biotechnology, or an interdisciplinary background.

More information and how to apply: HERE

People

Students of the MSc. Biological and Chemical Engineering for a Sustainable Bio-economy

admin March 3, 2022 Leave a comment

Four Erasmus Mundus Students of the MSc. Biological and Chemical Engineering for a Sustainable Bio-economy joined our group until June. Ariyan Amirifar, Belén Fernández de Caleya Ramiro, George William Ssendagala and José Gustavo Varona García will develop a metabolically engineered yeast strain of R. toruloides that will use lignocellulosic biomass (Brewer’s Spent Grain – BSG) as a substrate to produce monoterpenes. The produced terpenes shall be used (instead of hops) during fermentation to produce the distinctive beer flavor. This project will ultimately contribute to circularity in the brewing industry by supporting the valorization of BSG to create a useful product that can in turn be used by the same brewing industry.

People

New students

admin September 3, 2021 Leave a comment

Two new students have joined the group. Supported by Dora Plus scholarship both PhD students from Brazil, Luísa Czamanski and Julianno Sabedotti De Biaggi, will work 6 and 3 months on R. toruloides, respectively. Luísa will focus on engineering R. toruloides strains capable of producing terpenes, which have a wide range of applications such as precursors of renewable fuels. Julianno will focus on R. toruloides carotenoid metabolism by expressing the enzyme phytoene desaturase from multiple phyla of Fungi in Escherichia coli and analysing its activity on different substrates in vitro.

People

New student

admin September 3, 2021 Leave a comment

Artjom Tšitšerin, a high school student at Tallinn Central Russian Gymnasium, has joined our group to curate the carotenoid pathway by investigating whether overexpressing an heterologous xylulokinase in R. Toruloides could improve carotenoid yield.

People

Bioceb students

admin June 17, 2021 Leave a comment

We welcome five new interns from Bioceb programme who decided, after finishing their semester in TalTech, to extend their visit and work in the group.