PhD Position Synthetic Cells (MSCA DN SigSynCell) M/F

Updated: 17 days ago
Location: Pessac, AQUITAINE
Job Type: FullTime
Deadline: 03 May 2024

13 Apr 2024
Job Information
Organisation/Company

CNRS
Department

Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal
Research Field

Chemistry » Physical chemistry
Physics » Chemical physics
Physics » Biophysics
Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)
Country

France
Application Deadline

3 May 2024 - 23:59 (UTC)
Type of Contract

Temporary
Job Status

Full-time
Hours Per Week

35
Offer Starting Date

1 Sep 2024
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

HE / MSCA
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

SIGSYNCELL is a doctoral network funded by the European Commission via Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), whose goal is training through research. It is a consortium that brings together a dozen European academic partners, in addition to private companies, coordinated by the CNRS in Bordeaux (F).

Current biotechnology solutions based on living cells bear the intrinsic limitations that cells are subject to the random process of Natural Evolution, a major drawback for technological applications. Biotechnologies also need to demonstrate that they can be embedded into environmental life cycles to become sustainable options. The construction of synthetic cells therefore emerges as a ground-breaking new biotechnology that can overcome the limitation of current biotechnology solutions. Early forms of life have spontaneously emerged from non-living matter in prebiotic processes involving self-assembly, self-organization and elementary chemical reactivity in confined spaces. We now have at hand in the laboratory the tools to study these processes and elucidate their role in living systems. We are therefore now at a time where we can find and implement a generic framework for the construction of cellular systems from basic principles and elementary building blocks. In the consortium SIGSYNCELL, we want to develop synthetic cells as systems having the key characteristics function of living systems: their capacity to interact with their environment. In a laboratory environment, both the cells and the environment can be fully engineered to gradually control and build up the complexity of synthetic cell systems.

Chemical communication in living cells relies on a precisely coordinated compartmentalization of reactions. Membraneless organelles formed by liquid-liquid phase separation play a key role in this dynamic orchestration. Here, we will design light-responsive coacervates as membraneless organelles mimics to control the spatial distribution of biomolecules (enzymes, substrates, oligopeptides) and the efficacy of cascade biochemical reactions. These dynamic coacervates will serve as artificial organelles to switch metabolic activities in synthetic cells. In particular, we will focus on controllable coacervate organization and biomolecule localization via light-switchable phase transitions, demonstrate switchable enzyme reactions via light-responsive coacervation, develop a microfluidic platform to quantify biomolecular partitioning and enzyme kinetics in coacervates and incorporate coacervate switches in giant unilamellar vesicles.


Requirements
Research Field
Chemistry
Education Level
Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field
Physics
Education Level
Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field
Physics
Education Level
Master Degree or equivalent

Languages
FRENCH
Level
Basic

Research Field
Chemistry » Physical chemistry
Years of Research Experience
None

Research Field
Physics » Chemical physics
Years of Research Experience
None

Research Field
Physics » Biophysics
Years of Research Experience
None

Additional Information
Website for additional job details

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR5031-JEABAR-016/Default.aspx

Work Location(s)
Number of offers available
1
Company/Institute
Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal
Country
France
City
PESSAC
Geofield


Where to apply
Website

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Candidat/Offre/UMR5031-JEABAR-016/Candidater.aspx

Contact
City

PESSAC
Website

http://www.crpp-bordeaux.cnrs.fr/

STATUS: EXPIRED