A post-doctoral position is available to study, by cryo-electron microscopy, the mechanisms of host recognition and infection trigger in the case of siphophage 9N1, a bacteriophage that infects Salmonella.
Bacteriophages are bacterial viruses that recognise very specifically their host. Host recognition initiates perforation of the heavily armoured bacterial cell wall, allowing the injection of viral DNA into the host cytoplasm, which leads to viral replication, phage production and eventually liberation of the new virions. The project wishes to obtain the structural details of host recognition and infection trigger by solving the structure of the whole virion before and after interaction with its receptor, i.e. a membrane of lipopolysaccharide. This will be done by electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM) single particle analysis to provide atomic resolution of the virion and electron cryo-tomography on mini-skinny cells to have a more global view how the siphophages perforates the whole cell wall.
This project is a collaboration between two leading research teams in the field of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology of bacteriophages and electron microscopy: the teams of Cécile Breyton (IBS, Grenoble) and of Guy Schoehn (IBS, Grenoble) in an international ANR consortium with Stefanie Barbirz (MSB, Berlin). IBS is hosting state-of-the‐art platforms in structural biology, including an electron microscopy platform including a Glacios equipped with a K2 direct electron detector. Access to Krioses is also available at the neighbouring ESRF. Grenoble, capital of the French Alps, is a very lively and international city. IBS is part of the Partnership for Structural Biology, including the EMBL outstation, ILL and ESRF with ~ 300 scientist interested in structural biology producing an extremely dynamic and motivating scientific environment.
The postdoctoral researcher will have to:
- produce, purify and optimise phage, outer-membrane vesicle and mini-skinny cell samples needed for the project,
- prepare the samples for the electron cryo-microscope (vitrification),
- collect images (conventional imaging and tomography) of the samples using the latest generation of electron cryo-microscopes and/or interact with the local, national international EM platforms,
- process the data by image analysis (Relion, CryoSparc, eman2…),
- interpret the 3D structures obtained including tracing the peptidic chain into the EM Coulomb map,
- write scientific articles and present the data at conferences.
Qualifications
The successful candidate will hold a PhD and be an expert in single particle and tomography cryo-electron microscopy (sample preparation, data acquisition) as well as in advanced image analysis techniques (Relion, CryoSparc, eman2…) and show strong interest for phage biology. We seek a candidate motivated to work independently and who will demonstrate healthy team work ethic. In addition, candidates are required to demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Job Details
Financial support: French National Research Agency (ANR, 2022). The salary will be based on the CEA guidelines for post-doctoral positions. The CEA provides generous vacation days, good benefits and health insurance. Candidates with or without a post-doctoral experience are encouraged to apply.
Location: Institute for Structural Biology (IBS), Grenoble France
Starting date: January 2024
Duration: 18 months to 2 years depending on experience
To Apply
Interested candidates should send their CV summarising qualifications and experience, including the names and addresses of two referees and a motivation letter to Cécile Breyton (orcid: 0000-0002-4382-0434, cecile.breyton@ibs.fr) and Guy Schoehn (orcid: 0000-0002-1459-3201, guy.schoehn@ibs.fr)
