Post-doc position available – extracellular vesicles biology

You will be in charge of the Molecular and functional study of health promoting properties of probiotic-derived extracellular vesicles

For this position The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is looking for a microbiologist or cellular biologist with experience in the study of extracellular vesicles (EVs) to investigate the health-promoting properties of EVs secreted by probiotics, notably Propionibacterium freudenreichii, and their mechanisms of action on the host. Young researcher will work as part of the PEPR BBIT BACTER-EV-BOOSTER research programme that brings together groups from Université de Paris (UMR7057), Université Paris-Saclay/INRAE (MICALIS), Institut Agro Dijon (UMR PAM), ENS Paris (UMR7203), UMR1107 (Clermont Ferrand) and Université de Nantes/Inserm (UMR1235 TENS) to develop multidisciplinary approach to stimulate the bioproduction and engineering of Gram+ bacteria’s EVs for therapeutic applications to treat inflammation. Indeed, the aim of the BACTER-EV-BOOSTER project is to propose a biotherapy based on therapeutic EVs as an alternative to live probiotics. EVs will be produced in a scalable bioreactor at high yield from Gram+ bacteria with anti-inflammatory activities such as Propionibacterium freudenreichii and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, respectively, a food bacterium, and an intestinal bacterium isolated from the human gut. The EVs will be characterised at both biophysical and molecular levels (proteins, lipids, sugars, nucleic acids, metabolites). We will also engineer the content of EVs to enhance their intrinsic immunomodulatory activity. The anti-inflammatory and neuromodulatory properties of EVs from an isolated species or a pool of EVs from a combination of species (grown individually) will be tested in vitro in a cell model and in vivo in preclinical models. We will use models of acute inflammation (Inflammatory Bowel Diseases-IBD), low-noise inflammation (Irritable Bowel Syndrome-IBS) associated with cognitive-emotional and behavioral disorders, or in model of neurodegenerative pathology (Alzheimer’s).