M/F - Post-doc physicist or experimental biophysicist

We are looking for an post-doc experimentalist physicist or biophysicist to work on a cell mechanics project as part of the European "Pushing Cell" project at the CNRS laboratory "Physics of Cells and Cancer" at the Institut Curie in P. Bassereau's team (Membranes and Cellular Functions).

The project consists in measuring the pushing forces exerted by cells in response to external stimulation linked to the local topography of the cell membrane, as well as the contribution of the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons. These measurements will be carried out using optical tweezers coupled to confocal microscopy. This technique is available within the team. More generally, the European "Pushing Cell" consortium brings together 2 teams of physicists (theoreticians and experimentalists) and 2 teams of cell biologists; it aims to determine the biological and physical processes enabling cells to move in a biological matrix in the absence of adhesion but using the topography of the medium.

This biophysics project will be carried out under the direction of Patricia Bassereau, as part of the ERC Synergy project PushingCell, in close collaboration with theoretical physicists (Pierre Sens, Physics of Cells and Cancer, Institut Curie) and cell biologists specializing in cell migration and actin (Michael Sixt, IST Austria, Vienna, Austria) and microtubules (Anna Akhmanova, University of Utrecht, Netherlands). The "Physics of Cells and Cancer" unit (UMR 168) brings together physicists and biologists working to discover the role of physical laws in the architecture and functions of cellular systems. More generally, the Institut Curie is located in the heart of the Latin Quarter in Paris, an area with a rich academic tradition. It offers a highly interdisciplinary and international working environment, with state-of-the-art imaging and cell and molecular biology platforms, as well as access to the IPGG's microfabrication and microfluidics platform.