A 12-months postdoctoral position with possible extension to 24-months is open for a candidate who has skills in the area of polymer synthesis and self-assembly. The post-doctoral researcher will work in a multi-disciplinary team, within the framework of the MAGNETOCHEMOBLAST project ("Magneto-Chemotherapy: Modeling of Radiofrequency Magnetic Field-Induced Delivery of an Anticancer Drug by Polymer Nano-Vesicles and Monitoring by MRI of a Glioblastoma Model"), funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). The project involves LCPO, several academic laboratories in Bordeaux (RMSB, LOF, CBMN, I2M) and the Guerbet group, world leader in biomedical contrast agents.

Description

Among the different classes of nanomedicine, magnetically loaded block copolymer vesicles referred to as “magnetic polymersomes” are very attractive for drug delivery due to their colloidal stability and loading capacity of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic species. Once loaded with anticancer drugs, magnetic polymersomes can be disrupted in the vicinity of a tumor by local temperature increase induced by a radiofrequency magnetic field. Such dual-loaded polymeric nanocarriers for tumor imaging and treatment open the field of “theranostics” combining diagnostic and therapy functions in “all-in-one” nanoparticles. This strategy named “magneto-chemotherapy” arisen just one decade ago for lipid vectors has attracted an enormous attention for polymeric drug carriers in the very recent years. The primary aim of this project is to fill the lack of fundamental understanding of magneto-chemotherapy, especially the mechanism of drug-delivery into the cells without need of global warming of the tumor. It develops two levels of modeling: one physical based on microfluidics, high resolution IR thermography and numerical simulations; one biological with both in vitro (cytotoxicity and uptake pathways into cells) and in vivo experiments. Both levels will be addressed with the same nanomedicine systems, to get a full insight of the mechanism. All along the project, the physical modeling and the biological studies will be conducted in parallel. The postdoctoral fellow will develop his/her research activities at LCPO in the Polymer Self-Assembly & Life Sciences research group, which has introduced 10 years ago hybrid nanovesicles made by co-assembling amphiphilic block copolymers with iron oxide nanoparticles. These systems are biocompatible and present excellent properties for controlled drug delivery, a central focus of the research team. The position is opened to a talented experimental physical-chemist, with a PhD thesis in the physical chemistry of polymers or colloids. A past experience in the fields of nanomedicine or bio-imaging is not mandatory, but motivation for these subjects will be highly appreciated. The post-doctoral researcher will indeed work not only on chemistry (synthesis of the copolymers by ring opening polymerization, their functionalization with near infrared fluorophores, and formulation of magnetic polymer nano-hybrids…) but will also have strong interaction through the consortium with the biological topic (antitumor therapy). He/she will perform physicochemical experiments, imaging (confocal microscopy, TEM), drug loading and drug release assays. He/she will be trained in microfluidics and quantitative infrared thermography (QIRT) in collaboration with the LOF. Contact : Dr Olivier Sandre, CNRS senior researcher osandre@enscbp.fr Tel: +33 5 4000 3695 Pr Sébastien Lecommandoux lecommandoux@enscbp.fr Tel: +33 5 4000 2241

Benefits

Net salary is around 2000€/month, depending on the post-PhD experience. Access will be granted to all the facilities at LCPO and on campus (MRI, cryoTEM…).

Additional Job Details

http://lcpo.fr/index.php/people/job-offers Relevant bibliographic references: - C. Sanson, O. Diou, J. Thévenot, E. Ibarboure, A. Soum, A. Brûlet, S. Miraux, E. Thiaudière, S. Tan, A. Brisson, V. Dupuis, O. Sandre, and S. Lecommandoux, Doxorubicin Loaded Magnetic Polymersomes: Theranostic Nanocarriers for MR Imaging and Magneto-Chemotherapy. ACS Nano, 2011. 5(2): 1122-1140 - H. Oliveira, E. Pérez-Andrés, J. Thevenot, O. Sandre, E. Berra, and S. Lecommandoux, Magnetic field triggered drug release from polymersomes for cancer therapeutics. Journal of Controlled Release, 2013. 169(3): 165-170 - L. Pourtau, H. Oliveira, J. Thévenot, Y. Wan, A. Brisson, O. Sandre, S. Miraux, E. Thiaudière, and S. Lecommandoux, Antibody-functionalized magnetic polymersomes: in vivo targeting and imaging of bone metastases using high resolution MRI. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2013. 2(11): 1420-1424