DOCTORAL STUDENT IN BIOLOGY H/F

IBDM is located on the Luminy Campus and comprises about 240 permanent researchers, professors, engineers and technicians and non-permanent staff (CDD, post-docs, PhD students, trainees) working in 21 research teams and 11 technical platforms and services.
IBDM is a joint research unit under the supervision of the CNRS and AMU, which explores the field of developmental biology and associated pathologies.
The activity will be carried out within the team of Thomas LECUIT.
The team being composed of several nationalities, the practice of the English language is essential.

Tissue morphogenesis is the result of coordinated changes in cell shape driven by actomyosin contractions. Gene expression patterns regionalize cell behavior by controlling actomyosin contractility. The project will aim to characterize what underlies the mechanosensitivity of cells in the dorsal ectoderm of Drosophila embryos, also known as the propagation zone because it is crossed by a MyoII activation wave. The candidate will first use a candidate gene approach and test whether alpha Integrin/Scab, which is expressed in the propagation zone, blocks or attenuates fog-dependent GPCR activation. They will also test whether RhoGAP expression in the dorsal ectoderm is involved in this process. The candidate will also study the function of the transcription factor Zen that is expressed in the dorsal ectoderm. Since Zen is a transcription factor, the candidate will search for Zen transcription targets using RNA sequence comparing wilt type and mutants.
The work will consist of multi-positional screening by DIC and confocal microscopy of live embryos expressing MyoII-cherry Ecad-GFP in different genetic backgrounds. Quantitative image analysis will be used to compare conditions. The project will involve genetics, advanced microscopy, image analysis and statistics.