Deadline for applications : July, 15 2008 / Project starting from now to october

A post-doctoral position is available in the Biopolymers Interaction Assembly laboratory (BIA) to investigate the building-up mechanisms of arrangement of proteins involved in the stabilisation of emulsions.

The direct localisation of individual macromolecules remains an important challenge to elucidate their fine organisation at the nanometric scale and to connect it to the properties of the macroscopic systems formed by the assembly of the macromolecules. The complementarity of fluorescence detection and atomic force microscopy holds great promise for investigation of any systems where the arrangement of biopolymers determines the macroscopic properties.

In this project, combined AFM and fluorescence microscopy experiments will be performed to get the detection of two families of proteins localized at the interface of emulsions. For that, a simple interface will be considered as a model in which a bovine protein and a vegetal protein are used for the stabilization of a water/oil emulsion. Then, two parallel strategies of chemical  modifications will been developed. Firstly, AFM tips will be functionalized with antibodies to allow specific AFM detection of the corresponding proteins at the interface. Secondly, aqueous-soluble semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) with specific size and fluorescence emission will be covalently bound to the proteins. Our strategy that will be developed by the candidate is then based, in a third step, on the simulataneous detection by fluorescence of individual proteins, previously coupled with home- made quantum dots, and on AFM imaging using AFM cantilevers chemically-modified with pure and specific antibodies.

Requirements: The candidate should have a Ph.D. in chemistry or materials science or biology and mainly a strong background in scanning probe techniques and surface chemistry of AFM tips.

Organization: The research will be mainly carried out at Nantes, in the Biopolymers Interaction Assembly laboratory (BIA), part of the Science and Process Engineering of Agricultural Products (CEPIA), a research division of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). Website at: http://www.nantes.inra.fr/.

Conditions of employment : Duration of the contract: 12 months, possibly for two years if renewal is allowed. The CEPIA department offers a salary of € 2200,- gross per month depending on relevant experience and education.

To apply:  

Applications with curriculum vitae, publication list and covering letter should be emainled or sent by post to:

Dr Cedric Gaillard

INRA - U.R. BIA

Rue de la Géraudière - BP 71627

44316 Nantes Cedex 03, France

Email: gaillard@nantes.inra.fr

Description of the activities at:

http://www.inra.fr/cepia/english/doc/Report2008_eng.pdf