Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL-Bruxelles)
Louvain Drug Research Institute
Pharmacologie cellulaire et moléculaire

• Fellowship for postdoctoral fellow , in the context of persistence of intracellular infection

  Our laboratory is interested in so-called "persistent" infections, i.e. infections refractory to antibiotic treatment. More specifically, we study specific forms of infections (such as intracellular infections) and try to understand the reasons why they do not respond to antibiotic treatments.
  The project will aim at studying the intracellular survival of S. aureus in cells exposed to antibiotics, in order to establish the determinants of dormancy and awekening at the single cell level and the intracellular fate of dormant bacteria.

  Required skills : microbiology, pharmacology, molecular and cellular biology.

  Other requirements : knowledge of English, mobility between laboratories in Belgium or abroad, capacity to work in a team, autonomy and creativity.

  Diploma : PhD in biomedical, biological, pharmaceutical sciences or similar discipline

  Starting of the project :January 2023 ; financing for (1 year; with possibility to renew twice).

  Interested? Send your CV, including your academic degrees, a cover letter and two letters of recommendation before 13/11/2022 to Prof Françoise Van Bambeke (francoise.vanbambeke@uclouvain.be)

  A few publications related to the project:

- The persister character of clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus contributes to faster evolution to resistance and higher survival in THP-1 monocytes: a study with moxifloxacin. Frontiers in Microbiology (2020) 11:587364 (PDF)
- Intracellular Staphylococcus aureus persisters upon antibiotic exposure. Nature Communications (2020) 11:2200 (PDF)
- Host cell oxidative stress induces dormant Staphylococcus aureus persisters. Microbiology Spectrum 2022; 10(1):e0231321 (PDF)

posted on October 6, 2022