Nantes Université MSCA-PF 2024 - hosting offer at the CEISAM institute

Arnaud Tessier, researcher from the Interdisiplinary Chemistry: Synthesis, Analysis, Modelling (CEISAM institute) at Nantes Université is looking for postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) in 2024.

• Key words

bioinorganic chemistry; coordination chemistry; water oxidation catalysis; nuclear medicine 

• What is a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship?

MSCA Postdoctoral fellowships support the career development of researchers for enhancing their individual competence diversification in terms of skills at multidisciplinary level and intersectoral experience. The MSCA-PF grant provides a competitive salary plus mobility and family allowances if applicable, as well as research, training and networking costs. This call to interest concerns the European Postdoctoral Fellowships (12 to 24 months of duration in Europe + optional placement in private sector in Europe of 6 months). For more information: MSCA-PF.

• Team description

The CEISAM Institute is organized into five research teams covering coherent areas of activity but which are based on different and highly complementary segments, giving rise to original transversal projects. On the basis of fundamental and specific expertise, CEISAM is positioned in a certain number of niches of excellence at the interface with the fields of Health, Food chemistry and Materials, through privileged interactions at regional, national and international levels.

• Profile of the supervisor

Arnaud Tessier is senior CNRS researcher in organic chemistry with expertise in the multi-step synthesis of natural and non-natural products at the chemistry/biology interface, asell as vectorization of biomolecules for drug therapy. His current research activity concerns the synthesis of organic molecules with biological interest in the fields of cancer, viral or infectious pathologies and cardio-vascular diseases, through university and industrial collaborations. These medicinal chemistry projects involve a wide variety of molecular structures (nucleosides, glycochemistry, heterochemistry, asymmetric synthesis, etc.). He is also in charge of the CHEM-Symbiose platform dealing with interdisciplinary projects.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arnaud-Tessier

• Research project

Omnipresent both in nature and in synthetic chemistry, heterocycles constitute essential molecular motifs that are found in natural products, in medicinal chemistry, in materials, in catalysis, etc. Their structural characteristics directly influence the physicochemical properties of the molecules which integrate these heterocyclic motifs (conformation, solubility, electron density, etc.), thus justifying their role and their attractiveness in each of these areas. Within this chemical space, nitrogen heterocycles hold a primordial place, as for example, in pharmaceutical chemistry: Of the 1086 drugs approved by the FDA until 2012, 59% of them are composed of at least one heterocycle nitrogenous, with a clear predominance of piperidine, pyridine and piperazine motifs. In coordination chemistry, metals are known to have preferences for certain ligands due to their electronic or geometric properties. As such, aza-heterocyclic motifs play a leading role and are part of numerous perspectives in coordination chemistry to provide more structural varieties to ligands. Whether to offer new heterocyclic combinations, or to introduce new functionalities, these modifications can help improve the coordination spheres of the metal to more advantageously promote the catalysis of chemical reactions.

This project proposes to synthesize new aromatic or non-aromatic aza-heterocyclic structures using synthesis methodologies already well advanced within our research team. One of the first objectives will be to integrate heterocyclic motifs into the design of ligands to take into account the primary and secondary coordination spheres of the metal. This approach has already been initiated for applications in oxidative water catalysis. This “bottom-up” approach will be developed from these new structures in order to elucidate new key structural parameters of the ligand for the development of new robust and efficient catalysts for catalysis.

Given the strong predominance of nitrogen heterocycles in bioinorganic chemistry, a second objective of this project aims to develop access to new original aza-heterocyclic structures. On one hand, the synthesis, reactivity and stability of these heterocycles will be studied in depth. On the other hand, the ligands will be exploited for their complexation properties with metal, in particular for the incorporation of radioisotopes in nuclear medicine.

• What are the eligibility criteria?

Candidates must hold a PhD at the call deadline (11 September 2024) and have 8 years maximum of full-time research experience after the PhD.

“Mobility rule”: candidates must NOT have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in France for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.

Candidates can be from any nationality.

Although not an eligibility criterion, a good track record is recommended.

• What’s in it for me?

1. Selected candidate will have access to online training programme and one-to-one proposal preparation sessions with our experienced European Officers.
2. Selected candidate will have the opportunity to come to Nantes for two days in the beginning of July to meet his supervisor and to start working on the writing of the project. The grant awarded for this stay will cover travel, hotel and subsistence expenses for 2 days and 3 nights (up to 1000€ for the EU countries and up to 2000€ for the non-EU countries). Nantes Université does not cover the visa fees.

• I’m interested. What should I do?

If you are interested and have the required background, apply by sending the application form to the European office (europe.drpi@univ-nantes.fr)

More information on the dedicated webpage

Registration for this scheme does not imply automatic funding. Applications will be examined in the light of the MSCA PF evaluation criteria, both by your potential supervisor and by the experienced European Officers. Selected candidates will be ranked and the short-stay grant will be distributed among them within the limits of the available budget.

You should expect feedback for your application by May 31^st.

• Brief description of Nantes Université

Nantes Université is a higher education and research institution created in 2022. This new institution has adopted a new University model unprecedented in France by bringing together a university, a university hospital (CHU de Nantes), a technology research centre (IRT Jules Verne), a public scientific and technological institute (Inserm) and higher education establishments (Centrale Nantes, École des Beaux-Arts Nantes Saint-Nazaire, École d’Architecture de Nantes).

Nantes Université is a sustainable and committed institution and one of the driving forces behind societal development. With a global and outward-looking culture, it promotes innovativeness and openness: open science, open research, open education, open innovation. Nantes Université has received the HR Excellence in Research Award and is already involved in various European projects, notably MSCA actions.