Design of nanocomposites for drug delivery application

Supervisors: Dr. Giovanna Lollo

Keywords: Nanocarriers, nucleic acid, physico-chemical characterization, hydrogel, in vivo studies

Starting date: May 2022 (12-18 months)

Laboratory: The LAGEPP (https://lagepp.univ-lyon1.fr/en/home/) is a research laboratory of the University Lyon 1 and the French national Institute for scientific research (CNRS UMR 5007). It develops pluridisciplinary research in chemical engineering, pharmaceutical engineering and biochemical processes. The Gepharm “pharmaceutical engineering” group has a strong expertise in drug delivery. The research encompasses several scientific domains as development of new drug delivery systems, physical chemistry properties, biological in vitro evaluation, in vivo biodistribution and efficacy studies in mice models.

The postdoc will be part of the ANR project HyDNano working closely with different partners from industry and academic research groups. The aim of the project is to optimize and characterize novel nanomedicines for the oral or systemic delivery of genetic material or small drugs.

Principal activities:

The post doc will be involved in:

  1. i)  optimization of nanoparticulate systems based on either FDA approved materials or new chem-

    ical entities to ensure the correct biodistribution of the systems in vivo;

  2. ii)  development and optimization of hydrogels for nanoparticle encapsulation;
  3. iii)  evaluation of the association, integrity and activity of the encapsulated/associated genetic material or small drug;
  4. iv)  development of in vitro and in vivo tests to validate the efficacy of the selected systems;
  5. v)  in vivo imaging to study nanoparticles biodistribution, ex vivo flow cytometry, microscopy and

    image data analysis will be also performed.

Required skills:

Scientific:
Previous experience in:

  • Design and development of nanomedicines for gene delivery (experience with microfluidic is a plus)
  • Evaluation of drug/nucleic acid association to the nanomedicines (HPLC, electrophoresis, ITC, NTA)
  • Hydrogel formulation and characterization
  • in vitro cell culture studies (viability MTT-MTS, FACS analysis, confocal microscopy, Western Blot)
  • in vivo animal experience Soft skill:
  • Excellent communication, presentation and writing skills
  • Able to work independently and collaborate in team
  • Good sense for initiative and quality, accuracy and detail, team player.

• Motivated for the position

• Enthusiastic, ambitious and strong commitment to research

Language: English is required. French is a plus.

The application must include:

  • CV
  • Motivation Letter
  • PhD degree diploma
  • Two reference letters
  • Academic works – published or unpublished – that you would like to be considered in the assess-

    ment (up to 3 works)

Contacts : giovanna.lollo@univ-lyon1.fr; stephanie.briancon@univ-lyon1.fr