[Expired] 2 Years post-doctoral position available in Grenoble: Ancestral biogenesis systems of Fe-S centers.
Employer: CNRS
Contract: CDD
Place of work: IRIG institute, CEA-Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes, France
Salary: ~2200 € / month
The Laboratory of Chemistry and Biology of Metals (LCBM) is a mixed laboratory (CEA, CNRS, Grenoble Alps University) that takes part of the IRIG institute at the CEA of Grenoble. The laboratory, at the interface between chemistry and biology, focuses on the study of the structure, activity and regulation of complex biological systems using or transporting metals.
A 2 years post-doctoral position is available in the “Biocatalysis” team (headed by S. Ollagnier de Choudens) at the LCBM which investigates the assembly and reactivity of iron-sulfur proteins at molecular level. The project is financed by the “Agence Nationale de la Recherche” (ANR).
Summary of the First-FeS project: Ancestral biogenesis systems of Fe-S centers.
Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters are ancient and ubiquitous protein cofactors essential for life. Fe-S proteins contribute to multiple processes in bioenergetics, metabolism, gene expression, DNA transactions, and biosynthetic pathways. It is largely thought that Fe-S clusters assembled spontaneously in the early Earth anaerobic environment rich in iron and sulfide, and that Fe-S biogenesis machineries arose following the rise in atmospheric oxygen due to oxygenic photosynthesis (Great Oxidation Event, or GOE). Up to now, only three types of Fe-S cluster biogenesis machineries (NIF, ISC, SUF) have been described. Recently, these established paradigms were challenged (Garcia et al., Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2022). Two additional and widespread Fe-S cluster systems -SMS and MIS- were discovered, inferring to be ancestral to -and at the origin of- ISC, SUF and NIF pathways. These two MIS (Minimal Iron Sulfur) and SMS (SUF-like Minimal System) Fe-S biogenesis machineries were proposed to be already present in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), and therefore originated prior to the GOE. The more complex ISC, NIF, and SUF systems would have evolved subsequently by incorporation of additional functions to increase efficiency of Fe-S cluster synthesis in the presence of O2. The main objective of the First-FeS project is to fully discover and characterize SMS and MIS systems.
The goal of the BioCat team in Grenoble, one of the team involved in the First-FeS project, is to characterize biochemically, spectroscopically and structurally the SMS and MIS components.
The candidates should have a strong expertise in biochemistry, and an interest for spectroscopy and structural biology. Candidates should preferably have a 2 to 4 years research experience.