Postdoctoral position in Paris

A three year postdoctoral position is available immediately in the team of Sophie Saunier (PhD,) “Pathophysiology of nephronophthisis and renal hypodysplasia” at Imagine Institute, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France.
Mission The successful applicant will work within an internationally recognized group actively involved in clinical, genetic and functional studies on nephronophthisis (NPH) and renal multicystic hypodysplasia (RHD), two major hereditary causes of end stage renal failure in children which can be associated with extrarenal phenotypes (ciliopathies). Our work widely contributed to identify many of the responsible genes (NPHP) and to show that nephronophthisis is a "ciliopathy". Indeed, the products of most of these genes are localized and play key and highly conserved functions at the primary cilium. We also showed that NPHP proteins play an important role in epithelial morphogenesis through their interaction with key actors of the junctions and by controlling the Wnt/PCP pathway. Our goals are to identify novel NPH and RHD genes by high throughput sequencing approaches and to characterize their cellular functions (cilia/junctions) and their role in key signaling pathways controling kidney development and epitheliogenesis through the use of invalidated in vitro (kidney cell lines) and in vivo (mice and zebrafish) models. The proposed project will be more particularly focused on the study of signaling pathways controlled by the newly identified gene products using the above described in vivo and in vitro assays. Altogether, our global approach combining high through put sequencing and functional studies will help us to define the physiopathological mechanisms and the molecular basis for clinical variability of NPH-associated ciliopathies and RHD and will contribute to develop new therapeutic approaches.
Profil The successful candidate will have a PhD in Cell Biology or Molecular Genetics, with strong experience in cell biology, signaling, development and/or zebrafish model. Salary will be commensurate to previous experience and in line with EU standards.
Location
Saunier’s group is part of the Imagine Institute (Institute of Genetic Diseases) at the Necker campus in Paris. The campus is well equipped with core facilities including biobank, centralized animal facilities (including zebrafish), cell imagining (confocal microscopy, live cell imaging), genomics core facility (high throughput sequencing technology on SOLiD5 System and Illumina platform) and the Paris Descartes University Bioinformatic Core Facility.
Imagine Institut new building
Candidature A cover letter and CV, as well as the names of at least two academic references should be e-mailed to Sophie Saunier (sophie.saunier@inserm.fr), Inserm U983, Imagine Institute, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Tour Lavoisier 6e, 149 rue de Sèvres, 75015 Paris, France.