PhD Project ESR6
Development of inhibitors of Tau aggregation
SUPERVISORS
Prof. Sandrine Ongeri, UPSaclay University
Prof. Maria Luisa Gelmi, University of Milan (secondment)
INVOLVED UNIVERSITIES
UPSaclay University
INVOLED COMPANY
PhD COURSES
Pharmaceutical Sciences (UNIMI)
Therapeutic Innovation (UPSaclay University)
OBJECTIVES
Design, synthesis, biophysical and biochemical evaluation of peptides and peptidomimetics as ligands of Tau in order to modulate its aggregation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
The Early Stage researcher (ESR) will synthesize mimics of β-strands and β-hairpins bearing specific sequences selected from Tau and involved in the aggregation. He/She will be involved in the synthesis of unnatural scaffolds, i.e. non-natural AAs and/or turn mimics from the library available at UMIL, or new scaffolds (fluorinated and or fluorescent), according to the results of the computational design. He/She will perform conformational studies using NMR techniques and will be involved in the biophysical and biochemical evaluations of the activity of compounds on Tau aggregation (ThT fluorescence spectroscopy, Microscopy, Capillary electrophoresis).
The ESR will be enrolled by the UPSaclay University under the supervision of Prof. Sandrine Ongeri and will be awarded a Double Doctorate degree in co-tutelle with the University of Milano (https://www.unimi.it/), Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Maria Luisa Gelmi.
The research will involve 12 months secondments at the University of Milan (synthesis of non-natural AAs and/or turn mimics) and 3 months secondments in cell microscopy and super-resolution, at San Raffaele Hospital (https://research.hsr.it/en/index.html, Cent. di Imaging Sperimentale,) under the supervision of Dr. Davide Mazza.
The selected candidate will participate in the network’s training activities.