MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship on ANTIBODY-BASED THERAPIES FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES

) invites PhD researchers to express their interest to apply for a MSCA-IF grant in the context of its Infectious Diseases research line. Nb4D group aims at conducting pioneering research to improve the quality of life of society through the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that will redefine the healthcare landscape, with the clear intention to be a reference in the clinical field and to translate our expertise into tangible market-ready solutions.
Nanobiotechnology for diagnostics group (Nb4D) is located at the IQAC-CSIC in Barcelona, Spain. We have four fully equipped laboratories for organic synthesis, immunoassays development, molecular biology, hybridoma handling, as well as a BSL2 laboratory and cell culture facilities at our disposal. We are a group of around 20 enthusiastic scientist that involves staff scientist, PhD students, post-docs and technicians.
THE PROJECT:
The fast growing emergence of bacterial resistance processes together with the development of very few new antibiotics are driving towards the need for designing alternative therapeutic strategies to treat infectious diseases. In this sense, a promising approach to reduce this threat would consist on interrupting or attenuating the process of bacterial communication, the Quorum Sensing (QS) system. Quenching key targets of the QS networks would translate on blocking important pathogenic outcomes such as the production of virulence factors (minimizing their cytotoxic effects), the formation of biofilms (important for the chronification of many different bacterial infections), the inhibition of the immunomodulatory effect caused by different QS molecules on the host cells and finally will also disrupt the process of bacterial communication itself. Thus, as the concept of Quorum Quenching (QQ) relies on blocking bacterial pathogenic effects rather than killing bacteria, this approach could emerge as a very useful method to overcome the conventional resistance mechanisms.
In this context, strategies based on the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to treat bacterial infections are gaining ground due to the high specificity and affinity that these immunoreagents show for their targets, which minimize possible side effects. Moreover, currently Nb4D group has already available mAbs against different QS signaling molecules and virulence factors and also has some promising first results regarding the potential therapeutic value of these immunoreagents. Following this goal, host cell based in vitro systems will be used and also bacterial assays and bacteria-host cell co-cultures will need to be set up to assess the QQ activity of different QS mAbs, to evaluate the dysregulation effect of the QS targets on the host immune system and to unravel the feedback mechanisms between the different QS networks. All these results together will drive us to finally evaluate the prophylactic and therapeutic effect of the studied mAbs on in vivo infection models.
CANDIDATE PROFILE:
We are looking for a motivated researcher with a PhD in the field of biology, biotechnology or chemical engineering with experience on cell cultures techniques, bacterial cultures handling, microscopy, 2D cultures set-up (Co-culture), as well as in immunochemical methods.
The candidate must not have more than 8 years research expertise after PhD obtention (career breaks do not count). For the European Fellowship modality: you must not have lived/worked in Spain for more than 12 months in the last 36.
For the Global Fellowship modality: you must be national or long-term resident of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. You must not have lived/worked in the country of the Outgoing Phase for more than 12 months in the last 36 months.
Share this page
EURAXESS

Fecha de publicación: 22/06/2024