We are seeking a talented and inspired plant biologist to become a key member of Alora’s team. As we embark on a mission to create a truly sustainable agriculture system the successful candidate will hold a pivotal role within Alora, developing the world’s first oceanic rice plants.

For this position, Alora is seeking someone who can perform callus tissue culture, genetic analysis, and continual experimental design within their daily role. This could involve generating rice callus tissue from a new rice variety, followed by using these stem cells for either assessment of regenerative capacity or genetic-editing using a particle bombardment system to become salt-tolerant. After which these will be grown into plantlets where DNA & RNA analysis can be performed. Upon confirmation of transformation salinity tolerance will be assessed.

Alora is the Ocean Agriculture company, we have designed a way to grow crops in oceanic saltwater. Creating farms floating on the ocean to create truly sustainable agriculture. This is an exciting and dynamic position focused on the future of agriculture. We encourage everyone to bring a unique perspective and all their experience to this skilled role. The successful candidate will have an in-depth understanding of plant biology, that will ideally include plant tissue culture, plant transformation, genetic analysis, and plant physiology.

The salt tolerance mechanism is the core element of Alora's technology, but an additional pillar is investigating the establishment of bacterial endophytic symbiosis. Providing an additional experiential opportunity for this role, along with running a variety of tests in our aquariums.

We are a startup, ideated in the UK, created in San Francisco, and growing in Waterloo. To all motivated questioners ready to be part of the team working to solve world hunger we look forward to meeting you!

On a day-to-day, responsibilities of the successful candidate will include:

• Manage tissue culture of new rice varieties.
• Conduct standardised assays on callus induction and regeneration.
• Assist in generating salt-tolerant rice with particle bombardment.
• Regeneration of edited calli into plantlets.
• Running PCR & qRT-PCR on regenerated root tissue.
• Initiating co-inoculation experiments with bacterial cultures and rice seedlings.
• Running PCR & gel electrophoresis on symbiotic bacterial populations.
• Identifying optimal conditions for early plant incubation with bacteria for use in our plot plots.
• Liaise with partners in the National Marine Laboratory Singapore to replicate conditions for the pilot there.

Key skills include:

• Background in plant biology/plant genetics/cell culture.
• Affinity for cell culture, and preferable experience with callus induction.
• Experience with DNA/RNA purification and/or PCR and/or gel electrophoresis.
• Inspired imagination for improving upon concepts, designs, and experimental procedure.

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Please send an email under the subject: "Plant Scientist" to wave@alora.world, that includes your CV and a link to an uploaded up to 2-minute video (either unlisted on YouTube, Google Drive, or similar) sharing what values you would like to bring to the role and what you personally would like to achieve at Alora. We look forward to hearing from you!