PhD student in Organic and Supramolecular Chemistry

A 4-year PhD fellowship ( 2300/month) and a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship are available in the Engineering of Molecular NanoSystems laboratory of the Universit libre de Bruxelles (ULB) to work on the synthesis and development of transmembrane transporters for ions.

Project

These fellowships are offered in the context of a project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and a project funded by the national foundation for scientific research (FNRS), both aimed at the development of molecular transmembrane transporters for ions and their applications in biology. One candidate will focus on the transport of anions and the other on transition metal cations.

See for recent publications on this topic:

• Transmembrane transport of copper(I) by imidazole-functionalised calix[4]arenes. Chem. Commun. 2020, 5, 8206-8209. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CC03555F 
• Transmembrane Transport of Bicarbonate Unravelled. Chem. Eur. J., 2021, 27, 7367-7375. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202100491
• Calix[6]arenes with halogen bond donor groups as selective and efficient anion transporters. Chem. Commun. 2022, 58, 6255-6258. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC00847E
• Repositioning Chloride Transmembrane Transporters: Transport of Organic Ion Pairs. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 6921-6925. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201900818

Job description

The successful applicants will join the team of Dr. Hennie Valkenier to work on different aspects of the development of synthetic transmembrane transporters:

1. Design and synthesis of compounds, in collaboration with Prof. Ivan Jabin (Laboratory of Organic Chemistry).
2. Studies of the interactions between the synthetic receptors (or ligands) and the ions using various physicochemical methods including NMR, microcalorimetry, and optical spectroscopy.
3. Transmembrane transport studies in liposomes, using fluorescence and NMR spectroscopy.
4. Activity studies in cells, in close collaboration with different specialised labs in Belgium, France, and the UK.

Considering the expertise and results obtained so far, testing the activity of compounds will start as soon as the first compounds have been prepared. The successful applicants will thus work closely together with other team members. English and French are the main languages spoken in the laboratory (currently ~10 nationalities), but all results will be disseminated in English (presentations, written reports, and articles). Participation in international conferences will be encouraged.