Post-doctoral position in DNP-enhanced NMR at CEA / Univ. Grenoble Alpes (France)
A 18 months postdoctoral position is open for a highly motivated candidate to work on the characterization of an artificial enzyme in vitro and in cell by DNP-enhanced NMR.
Position
A post-doctoral position granted by the ANR (French Research Agency) is available immediately for a period of 18 months to work with Sabine Hediger and Gaël De Paëpe on an artificial enzyme and its characterization by DNP-enhanced NMR methodology. More information about our group at CEA Grenoble / Univ. Grenoble Alpes and a list of recent publications can be found here: https://nmr-dnp-grenoble.net. The project is in collaboration with the groups of Stéphane Ménage and Christine Cavazza from the Laboratory of Chemistry and Biology of Metals (LCBM) at CEA Grenoble/Univ. Grenoble Alpes/CNRS.
Scientific context and project description
The urge for a sustainable chemistry has put the chemistry of life at the center of interest for industrial applications. Among the diverse synthetic biology strategies, the design of artificial enzymes with new catalytic activities that differs from natural processes is a promising route for the environment-friendly production of non-natural products. The in-cellulo assembly of such enzymes, requiring the incorporation of an exogenous inorganometallic complex to a protein over-expressed in the cell, remains a major challenge, with several bottlenecks to overcome. The direct detection of the protein complex in cellulo to prove the correct self-assembly is one of them. This project, in collaboration with the chemists and biologists at LCBM, who are developing the artificial enzyme, aims at using state-of-the art DNP-enhanced NMR methodology, partly under development in our lab, to characterize its artificial active site, first in vitro and then in cell.
Requirements and application
Applicants are expected to have a doctoral degree in liquid- and/or solid-state biomolecular NMR spectroscopy. Knowledge about MAS-DNP and/or biochemistry will be considered as a plus. The successful candidate will be recruited for 18 months and will benefit from an ANR postdoctoral fellowship. Interested candidates are welcome to send their application including CV, motivation letter and at least one letter of recommendation to sabine.hediger@cea.fr. Deadline for application is mid of January.
Work environment and location
The project is based on a collaboration between the Modelization and Exploration of Materials lab (MEM) and the Laboratory of Chemistry and Biology of Metals (LCBM). MEM and LCBM are both research units of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble IRIG, which brings together fundamental research in biology, health, nanoscience, cryotechnology and new technologies for energy and the environment. Within MEM, the DNP-NMR group headed by Gaël De Paëpe focuses on developing DNP-NMR instrumentation and methodology to push back the limits of the technique's sensitivity and resolution, in order to tackle challenging systems ranging from materials to life sciences. The LCBM conducts research at the interface between chemistry and biology. Their work focuses on studying the structure, activity and regulation of complex biological systems that transport and use metal ions, and on exploiting this knowledge to develop bio-inspired systems with similar structures and/or functions.
Grenoble is one of the major cities in Europe for research with a large international scientific community. In addition, Grenoble has a large international student population, is a very pleasant city to live in, and is known as the “Capital of the Alps” with easy access to great skiing and hiking. It is also only 2 hours’ drive to the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, or Switzerland. Grenoble, Lyon, and Geneva airports are nearby and permit straightforward international travel.
Project-related references:
- D. Gauto, O. Dakhlaoui, I. Marin-Montesinos, S. Hediger, G. De Paëpe, Targeted DNP for biomolecular Solid-State NMR, Chem. Sci. 12 (2021) 6223-6237. DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06959K.C.
- Marchi-Delapierre, C. Cavazza, S. Ménage, EcNikA, a versatile tool in the field of artificial metalloenzymes. J. Inorg. Biochem. 262 (2024) 112740. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2024.112740.
- O. Dakhlaoui, T. Halbritter, D. Gauto, E. Gillon, V. Chazalet, A. Varrot, A. Imberty, S. Th. Sigurdsson, S. Hediger, G. De Paëpe, Site-directed spin labeling combined with selective DNP-enhanced NMR for probing biomolecular structural information, Manuscript in preparation.
- O. Dakhlaoui, D. Gauto, E. Gillon, A. Varrot, A. Imberty, S. Th. Sigurdsson, S. Hediger, G. De Paëpe, Highlighting the vicinity of biomolecular diamagnetic metal binding sites with selective DNP-enhanced NMR, Manuscript in preparation.
-- _____________________________________________________________ Sabine Hediger Interdisciplinary Research Institute of GrenobleCEA Grenoble17 rue des Martyrs38054 Grenoble Cedex 9France Tel.: +33 4 38 78 65 79 Fax : +33 4 38 78 50 90Email : sabine.hediger@cea.fr