ESPCI web site
ESPCI Paris-PSL is a major institution of higher education (a French "Grande École d’ingénieurs"), an internationally renowned research center (6 Nobel Prizes), and a fertile ground of innovation for industry (3 start-ups created/year). ESPCI is a highly multidisciplinary environment with teaching and research in physics, chemistry and biology.
INSA -TBI - TOULOUSE BIOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE is a laboratory for fundamental and applied research in the field of biotechnologies, located on the campus of the "Institut National des Sciences Appliquées" (INSA) Toulouse. Under the joint supervision of INSA, CNRS, and INRAE, combining scientific excellence with economic and societal relevance, the laboratory is organized in 4 scientific departments (12 teams) and 1 technology platform including 3 IBiSA (Infrastructures for Biology, Health and Agronomy). TWB –Toulouse White Biotechnology center, is a transfer structure aiming to support research and development projects of an industrial nature, working in the field of biotechnology in the broadest sense. TWB is hosting 5 start-ups in the field of white and green biotechnologies.
Prof. Andrew Griffiths’ Lab
The research activities of the Laboratory of Biochemistry team at ESPCI Paris-PSL, directed by Prof. Andrew GRIFFITHS, are based around droplet-based microfluidics, a powerful new ultrahigh-throughput system in which reaction volumes can be miniaturized by up to a million-fold compared to conventional assays in microtitre plates. This opens up exciting prospects for the development of extremely innovative systems with many applications in the Life Sciences.
Prof. Jean M François’ lab
The research activity the Integrated Physiology and functional genomic of microbial systems (PHYGE) at INSA is dealing with genetic and metabolic regulation and refactoring carbon and energy metabolism towards production of bio-based chemicals for renewable carbon sources. The team is notably implicated in several national and European projects aiming at refactoring the microbial metabolism towards better efficiency for bio-based chemical production from renewable carbon resources. This requires among others, finding or creating enzymes with novel non-nature activities.
Project
Directed evolution is a powerful method to generate enzymes, and even whole metabolic pathways, that are optimized for industrial bio-catalysis. However, directed evolution is currently limited by the absence of high-throughput screening technologies, free from the constraints of gene cloning, in vivo expression and culture.
In this project, in collaboration with Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI) and Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB), we propose to develop a completely in vitro ultrahigh-throughput screening platform using droplet microfluidics in which DNA amplification, in vitro transcription and translation (IVTT) and the enzymatic assays are completely uncoupled, thereby providing almost unlimited flexibility.
The successful candidate will share its research activity in part à TBI-TWB and in ESPCI, joining highly multidisciplinary teams, with experience spanning biology in broader sense (molecular biology enzyme engineering, metabolic engineering), chemistry and physics.
Requirements
We are seeking a highly motivated postdoc to work on high-throughput single-cell analysis based on droplet-based microfluidics and NGS. He/she may share part of the work in Toulouse (2 months) and the remaining at ESPCI-Paris.
Preferred experience : Molecular biology bench experience (PCR, cloning, Reverse transcription, RNAseq, NGS library preparation), Cell biology bench experience (Cell culture, Flow cytometry, ELISA).
The candidate should be interested in learning microfluidic technics, or have work experience in microfluidics (preferred).
Flexibility, autonomy, the ability to work in a highly multidisciplinary team and good interpersonal skills are essential.
Excellent oral, written and presentation skills in English are required.
Education requirements : PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biotechnology.
Starting date : July 2021 (at best)
Duration : 12 months
Salary : according to professional experience
Address your applications (CV + at least one recommendation letter) by email to :
Prof. Andrew GRIFFITHS
ESPCI Paris – LBC Team
10 Rue Vauquelin - 75005 Paris
job-lbc@espci.fr
And
Prof. Jean Marie FRANCOIS
TBI-TWB – PHYGE Team
135 avenue de Rangeuil
fran_jm@insa-toulouse.fr or jean-marie.françois@inrae.fr