Post-doc position available

Posted on | by Alexandra Meng

Postdoctoral position in the field of Solid-State NMR investigation of Supramolecular Interactions involving Amyloid Peptides

Starting date expected between May and October 2024

Who we Are

We are 2 NMR researchers Thierry Azaïs (solid-state NMR at Sorbonne University) and Nicolas Giraud (Liquid-state NMR at Université Paris Cité) involved in a consortium dedicated to the development of NMR strategies to understand the structure of amyloid-forming peptides and their interactions with fibrils promoting agents.

Project description:

Within the context of amyloid-related diseases (e.g. Alzheimer disease), we aim at understanding the supramolecular assembly of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides in the presence of polyanions such as polyphosphates (PP) or Polyoxometalates (POM), two biologically relevant fibrils promoting agents. The interactions of PP and POM with the Aβ peptides were shown to tune their self-assembly into fibrils, in link with literature data reporting a lessening of oligomers-mediated toxicity. We will study the supramolecular organization of Aβ peptides and their interaction between and PP and POM by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. In this frame, we will focus on high field and 1H fast MAS approaches including 1H-detected 31P and 13C solid-state NMR experiments. The study will be complemented by liquid-state NMR and Molecular Dynamics to access the complete overview of Aβ peptides fibrillation mediated by PP and POM.

NMR facilities

The NMR facilities at Sorbonne Université and Université Paris Cité are in the heart of Paris and provide a dynamic and international scientific research environment.

Sorbonne University: 700, 500 and 300 MHz solid-state NMR spectrometers at the Sorbonne University NMR platform with various double and triple channel probes including a 1.3 mm Fast-MAS probe on the 700 MHz spectrometer.

The Infranalytics and PANACEA networks will be solicited to access very fast MAS probes (0.7 mm) at very high field (1 GHz) (https://infranalytics.fr/utilisateurs/plateformes; https://panacea-nmr.eu/).

Université Paris Cité: this platform includes a state-of-the-art 600 MHz IVDr spectrometer fully dedicated for the analysis of biological samples and a spectrometer operating at 500 MHz, with a liquid-state cryoprobe optimized for 13C detection.

Applicant profile

We are looking for a hard-working and motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our consortium. Applicants should have a Ph.D. and a good experience in solid-state NMR (an experience in the field of biosolid NMR would be appreciated).

The candidate will be in charge of (i) preparing NMR samples, (ii) implementing and optimizing solid-state NMR experiments, (iii) preparing the applications for Infranalytics and PANACEA networks, (iv) analyzing the resulting data. He/she will be located at LCMCP at Sorbonne University, Paris, one of the leader scientific university in France. The candidate will also collaborate with LCBPT at Université Paris Cité, a biomedical research center of excellence (15 min away by foot from LCMCP), for liquid state NMR and Molecular Dynamics studies.

The eligible candidate will be funded for 18 months (with a potential extension to 24 months) by a grant from the French Research Ministry (ANR grant SUPRAMY).

References:

  1. B. H. Meier et al. Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tibs.2017.08.001
  2. J. A. Raskatov et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021 https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c06339
  3. T. Wang et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017 https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b02089
  4. Denis-Quanquin et al. PCCP 2021 https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CP06570F
  5. Atrian-Blasco et al. Chem. Commun., 2022 https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CC05792H

Contact

Send CV, letter of interest and contact information for 2/3 references to T. Azaïs (thierry.azais@sorbonne-universite.fr) and N. Giraud (nicolas.giraud@u-paris.fr)

Websites : https://lcmcp.upmc.fr/site/ & https://lcbpt.biomedicale.parisdescartes.fr/nmr

-- Thierry Azaïs Laboratroire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris Tour 44-54, Etage 4, Pièce 404 4, place Jussieu | 75005 Paris 01 44 27 56 75 thierry.azais@sorbonne-universite.fr sciences.sorbonne-universite.fr