General information
Offer title : Post-Doc M/F: Study of cytoplasmic crowding during antifungal drug tolerance (H/F)
Reference : UMR7277-ROBARK-016
Number of position : 1
Workplace : NICE
Date of publication : 12 November 2025
Type of Contract : Researcher in FTC
Contract Period : 6 months
Expected date of employment : 1 February 2026
Proportion of work : Full Time
Remuneration : The salary is between 3021 and 4664 Euros, gross monthly depending on experience.
Desired level of education : Doctorate
Experience required : 1 to 4 years
Section(s) CN : 22 - Cellular biology, development, evolution-development, reproduction
Missions
The candidate will take advantage of a live-cell microscopy method, that has been recently established in Candida albicans, to quantitate cytoplasmic crowding in this opportunistic human pathogenic fungus, using a variety of molecular and cellular approaches.
Activities
A 6-month Post-Doc fellowship is available in the Polarized growth in yeast group at the Institute of Biology Valrose (iBV) at the University of Côte d'Azur in Nice, FR
(http://ibv.unice.fr/research-team/arkowitz/)
Our team studies the spatial and temporal regulation of filamentous growth using a range of state-of-the art microscopy approaches. Drug tolerance is generally described as microbe survival or growth above inhibitory concentrations and subpopulations of C. albicans can grow above minimal inhibitory drug concentrations. Tolerance, i.e. slow growth in presence of drug, is dependent on cell stress response pathways. Cytoplasmic crowding is intimately tied to protein abundance, and hence affected by stresses such as starvation, which are activated via amino acid sensing, and also likely to affect drug tolerance. The goal of this collaborative project is to determine the link between antifungal drug tolerance and cytoplasmic crowding at the single cell level. The project will take advantage of cutting-edge imaging approaches, molecular genetics and image analyses to investigate relationship between physical characteristics of the cytoplasm and antifungal tolerance in C. albicans cells and communities.
Objectives:
-Determine the heterogeneity of cytoplasmic crowding in a population of cells and whether it correlates with an antifungal drug tolerance.
-Determine the link between intracellular antifungal drug concentration and cytoplasmic crowding.
-Quantify cytoplasmic crowding in a range of stress response mutants and clinical isolates.
Skills
- An experience with fungal cells is a plus but is not necessary.
- Experience in microscopy.
- Sense of initiative and ability to work independently.
- Ability to work in a team and to communicate.
- Ability to carry out careful controlled and rigorous experiments.
- Sense of organization and autonomy.
- Ease of communication in written and oral English.
Work Context
The Valrose Institute of Biology (28 teams; 300 people; 25 nationalities) is an international institute (English is the working language) with a very rich scientific environment. The iBV provides cutting-edge technological infrastructures and platforms, with a collaborative and lively atmosphere in a very attractive city / region. (ibv.unice.fr)