Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral fellowships in computational and experimental precision nano-neurology Full-time
We are recruiting several post-doctoral fellows as a part of a collaboration between the West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, within the laboratories of Profs Luo Kui and Xiaohe Tian and the Molecular Bionics Laboratories (MBL) (https://www.molecularbionics.org) currently based between the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) at the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) and Department of Chemistry and University College London (UCL) led by Prof Giuseppe Battaglia. The three positions will be based in Chengdu, but we plan extensive visits to the MBLs in Barcelona and London.
We are looking for individuals in three disciplines: synthetic chemistry, neurobiology, and computational physics. We will recruit at least three individuals with a strong publication record and relevant experience in:
- organometallic compounds and polymer synthesis, and molecular engineering of nanomedicines
- brain vasculature and neuroinflammation, blood-brain biology, and in vivo imaging.
- computational statistical physics, multiscale modelling, and machine learning protocols.
We will also consider exceptional candidates with different yet relevant experience. The research fellows will work on a multidisciplinary project to develop novel probes to image healthy and diseased brain vasculature.
We will design biodegradable polymersomes with controlled topology ( Zhu et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 58 (14), 4581-4586, 2019 and Ruiz Perez et al. Science Adv. 2 (4), e1500948, 2016) conjugated with organometallic compounds. These latter will allow multimodal imaging capability at single-molecule sensitivity across several imaging modalities ranging from transmission electron microscopy (Gill et al. Nature Chem. 1 (8), 662-667, 2009), super-resolution optical microscopy (Tian et al. Advanced Mater. 32 (39), 2003901, 2020) and MRI imaging (Li et al. J. Contr. Release 329, 482–51 2021).
We recently reported a new transport process of nanoscopic cargo across brain vasculature (Tian et al. Science Adv. 6 (48), eabc4397, 2020), and we will here extend these study to both healthy and diseased vasculature, including glioma and encephalitis models. Finally, we will design our probes to target unique cellular subpopulations using our established computer-aid phenotypic targeting (Tian et al. Science Adv. 6 (4), eaat0919, 2020 and Liu et al. Nature Comm. 11 (1), 1-10, 2020). We will complement our experimental activities with computational modelling and bioinformatics. We also have a strong interest in cancer nanomedicine and immunotherapies.
We offer internationally competitive salaries and benefits, with a starting annual salary of 240,000 RMB (about 37,000 US dollar), in addition to regular bonus schemes depending on productivity. The West China Hospital of Sichuan University is the top 2 hospitals in China, ranked top 1 for over ten years for research. It is a leading international centre with a diverse platform spanning from basic research to translations research. For more information, visit http://hmrrc.zq.ledusoft.cn. For further inquiries and information, please contact Prof Kui Luo: luokui@scu.edu.cn, Prof Xiaohe Tian xiaohe.t@wchscu.cn and Prof Giuseppe Battaglia gbattaglia@ibecbarcelona.eu and g.battaglia@ucl.ac.uk
Interested candidates, please send a motivation letter, an updated CV with a detailed research record to Prof Giuseppe Battaglia (gbattaglia@ibecbarcelona.eu and g.battaglia@ucl.ac.uk), Prof Kui Luo: luokui@scu.edu.cn and Prof Xiaohe Tian xiaohe.t@wchscu.cn. Review of applications will continue until the positions are filled.