15 PhD Fellowship positions available in EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN): synBIOcarb - Synthetic biology of carbohydrate-binding proteins: engineering protein-carbohydrate interactions for diagnostics and cell targeting

Are you keen to progress research in glycoscience at the interface between chemistry, biology and physics?

synBIOcarb is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. It brings together 14 leading European partners in a transnational network, implementing a multidisciplinary and intersectorial research and training programme between the academic and the industrial partners in the fields of Synthetic Glycobiology.

Together, we will provide 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESR; 36 month PhD positions) with advanced scientific training in chemical synthesis, protein engineering, biophysics, cell biology and analytical device technologies that underpin the development and exploitation of glycoscience for diagnostics and targeted drug delivery. ESR will contribute to one, or more, of four thematic work packages that have been designed to progress the state of the art in Synthetic Glycobiology.

For information about the different positions, please consult the link provided for each of the projects.

• ESR1 - Engineering multimeric lectin complexes for membrane fusion (Prof Turnbull; University of Leeds, UK)
• ESR2 - Mucin-like glycocalyx modules for creating more complex artificial glycocalyxes (Prof Turnbull; University of Leeds, UK)
• ESR3 - Lectins on polymer scaffolds for superselective targeting of cancer cells (Dr Richter; University of Leeds, UK)
• ESR4 - Basic mechanisms and applications of lectin-triggered membrane fusion (Prof Römer, University of Freiburg, Germany)
• ESR5 - Crosslinking cytotoxic T cells and cancer cells with lectins to mediate cell death (Prof Römer, University of Freiburg, Germany)
• ESR6 - Engineering of neo-lectins and janus lectins (Dr Imberty, CERMAV-CNRS, France)
• ESR7 - Application of glycosyl transferases to functionalise protocells (Prof Breton, CERMAV-CNRS, France)
• ESR8 - Glycopeptide- and lecto-modules for protein and cell-lipid bilayer-arrays (Prof Blixt, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
• ESR9 - Glyco-modulation of membranes to elucidate host-parasite interactions (Prof Blixt, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
• ESR10 - Lectin attachment on surfaces by bioconjugation at non-canonical amino acids (Dr Wiltschi, ACIB; Austria)
• ESR11 - Lectin-drug conjugates to induce cancer cell death by drug delivery (Dr Wiltschi, ACIB; Austria)
• ESR12 - Nanotechnology-driven construction of bioanalytical devices for glycomics (Dr Tkáč, ICSAS, Slovakia)
• ESR13 - Affinity-based methods for high-throughput determination of glycosylation (Dr Katrlík, ICSAS, Slovakia)
• ESR14 - Development of a lectin kit for quality control of recombinant glycoprotein (Dr Landemarre, GLYcoDiag, France)
• ESR15 - Process development for the production of recombinant lectins in Escherichia coli (Dr Mairhofer, enGenes, Austria)

The successful candidate will participate in the network’s training activities and work placements at the laboratories of the synBIOcarb academic and industrial teams. Regular meetings and workshops within the EU-funded synBIOcarb Innovative Training Network will supplement the training and support provided at the host organisation. Practical scientific training will be complemented by a coordinated programme of industry-relevant transferable skills that will prepare the ESRs for future careers in the medical technologies sector.