Join our team in the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron, Montpellier, France, for a 18 month postdoctoral position to develop a new photocrosslinking chemistry for 3D printing

Starting from 1st May 2025 (flexible starting date) for a duration of 18 months

Contact: cecile.echalier@umontpellier.fr

Research team: IBMM Peptides www.ibmmpeptide.com

Location: IBMM, Pole Chimie Balard, 1919 Route de Mende, Montpellier, France.

The project

Organ transplantation is a life-saving therapy for patients with chronic organ failure. The major bottleneck to organ transplantation is the shortage of organ donors. Tissue engineering aims to address this shortage by producing artificial living tissues. 3D printing technologies have boosted progress in the field by enabling the fabrication of complex engineered tissues. Nevertheless, printed scaffolds cannot faithfully recapitulate the spatial heterogeneity and detailed architecture of human tissues yet. This project aims to develop a selective photoactivatable crosslinking chemistry that will enable the fabrication of heterogenous living constructs at the resolution of a single cell. Unlike conventional photopolymerization, this new chemistry will enable selective photoactivation of a single precursor in a multicomponent ink. This will allow to choose the composition of the crosslinked ink in each point of the print, giving access to scaffolds with gradients/patterns of bioactive molecules mimicking native tissues with high resolution.

The postdoctoral researcher will be responsible for the synthesis of photoactivatable compounds, their characterization, the formulation of DLP inks and 3D printing of scaffolds using the newly developed crosslinking chemistry.

The team

The Peptides team of IBMM (www.ibmmpeptide.com) is specialized in the synthesis of bioinspired building blocks and their polymerization by bioorthogonal chemistry to obtain bioactive hydrogels mimicking the composition of the native extracellular matrix. These hydrogels are currently evaluated for osteoarthritis treatment and spinal cord repair. With this project, we aim to go further in the field of tissue engineering by mimicking not only the chemical composition of native human tissues but also their 3D architecture.

Tasks

• Synthesis and purification of photoactivatable precursors
• Characterization by NMR, LC/MS and UV-Vis
• Stability and photoreactivity studies
• Preparation of crosslinked hydrogels
• Development of inks for DLP printing
• 3D printing of scaffolds by DLP

Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry or biomaterial engineering required
• Experience in synthetic organic chemistry
• Analytical chemistry (NMR, MS, chromatography, UV-Vis)
• Experience in photochemistry, photocrosslinking or photophysical characterization will be highly appreciated
• Experience in sol-gel chemistry and/or 3D printing will be appreciated
• Writing scientific publications and conference presentations
• Candidates willing to apply for postdoctoral fellowships or permanent CNRS positions will receive particular attention 

Soft skills

• Autonomy, project management, organisational skills
• Rigor and commitment to work
• Scientific curiosity, critical thinking, problem solving
• Good interpersonal skills, ability to report and communicate with supervisors and team members

Application

Please provide a detailed CV, a cover letter and a recommandation letter from a previous supervisor.