Post-doctoral position in microbiota-host crosstalk in the early live

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAE) is a public
research establishment. It is a community of 12,000 people with more than 200 research units and 42
experimental units located throughout France. The institute is among the world leaders in agricultural and
food sciences, in plant and animal sciences, and is 11th in the world in ecology and environment. INRAE’s
main goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. In the face of
the increase in population, climate change, scarcity of resources and decline in biodiversity, the institute
develops solutions for multiperformance agriculture, high quality food and sustainable management of
resources and ecosystems.

The proposed postdoctoral opportunity will be developed in the Commensal and Probiotics host interactions laboratory located at Micalis Institut in INRAE center of Jouy en Josas. 

INRAE is France's new National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, created on January 1, 2020 by the merger of INRA, the National Institute for Agricultural Research, and IRSTEA, the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture. 

The Micalis Institute is a mixed research unit associating INRAE, AgroParisTech and Université Paris-Saclay. Its mission is to develop innovative research in the field of microbiology of food for health.

The Micalis Institute merges more than 340 people including 130 scientists, engineers and scientists-teachers, 70 scientific or administrative assistants as well as 140 PhD students, post-doctorant fellows and other students, organized in 21 research teams and 3 thematic axes. The Micalis Institute also hosts 2 technological platforms, a yeast biological resources center and a gnotobiotic animal facility. In addition, Micalis is also closely associated to the pre-industrial functional and quantitative metagenomics demonstrator Metagenopolis.

Commensals and probiotics host interactions laboratory is composed by around 50 people. The main objectives of the Team are:

1. To study intestinal, vaginal, pulmonary and skin ecosystem, in order to identify benefic effect on host and their mechanism of action

2. To explore immune and physiologic responses to commensals and probiotics in different nutritional contexts

3. To study the interaction between host and intestinal microbiota through diet and supplement with prebiotics and/or synbiotics

4. To integrate our work to physiology (birth and aging) and human physio-pathology (inflammation, cancer and obesity) in order to tend toward translational research and to propose notably strategies of prevention and therapy 

A post-doctoral position in microbiota-host crosstalk in the early live funded by collaborative project INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) –PiLeJe laboratory is available from September 1^st 2023 in the laboratory “Commensal and Probiotics host interactions laboratory” headed by Philippe Langella, research director at Micalis Institute in Paris region, France.

 The postdoc position will be a contract of 12 months and the salary will depend on the candidate’s experience. The project, called INSPIRE (for isolation and characterization of new early-life candidate probiotics) aims to characterice in vivo and decipher the mechanism of action of several probiotic candidates isolated from new-born babies samples. 

PiLeJe is a specialized company in the development and commercialization of dietary supplements, nutrition, phytonutrition and other health products. PiLeJe leads research and development activities to develop innovative products and concepts.

Applicants will have a Ph.D with expertise in the analysis of microbiota-host crosstalk in  in vivo murine models. Experience in animal experimentation will be thus requested. Additional experience physiology and immunology would be a plus. 

The applicant should be able to work in a multidisciplinary team in collaboration with researchers and engineers and to interact with the industrial partner. The candidate will have to present regularly his/her results to the scientific committee and ensure the scientific and technical monitoring in the field. 

French speaking is not mandatory and team spirit, synthesis, rigor, organization, curiosity and professionalism are expected.