Post-doc position

The PanCaIKS (Pan-Cancer Imaging and Killing Strategy) ANR project aims to develop an original receptor-specific radiolabeled peptide for bad prognosis tumor imaging and therapy. The radiopeptide, mimicking the C-terminal Binding Domain (CBD) of Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) will target the CD47 receptor, overexpressed by cancer cells.

In this project, our task is to provide bifunctional macrocyclic ligands optimized for the different families of radiometals envisaged. Despite dota chelator and its derivatives are widely explored for the complexation of radiometals in preclinical studies, in some cases they display a lack of selectivity which compromises the use of the associated radioelement in vivo. Therefore, the design of radiopharmaceutical tools, for both cancer treatment and imaging, requires expanding i) the repertoire of the chelators to molecules not leading to a release of the radioisotope in vivo and ii) the associatedradiometals (b^- or a emitters for therapy; b⁺ or g emitters for TEP or SPECT, respectively), including “theranostic pairs” whose constitute ideal theranostic tools while requiring the exploration of a unique associated chelator.

In a later stage, the radiopeptide will be evaluated in vitro on pan-cancer cell lines. Pancreas and Triple Negative Breast Cancers will be chosen as models for the in vivo proof of concept (POC). This is an original approach since this receptor has not been targeted in the field of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) until now.

The young researcher, localized in the CEMCA Laboratory (UMR 6521) will have a serious background in organic chemistry (and if possible in macrocyclic chemistry). A good knowledge in bioconjugation reactions (click chemistry, NHS, maleimide…) as well as an expertise in purification by HPLC will also be important additional assets. The post-doc will also have an affinity for bio-applications and will frequently interact with the different partners of the project.