Job Description

The Montreal Laboratory for Chemical Glycomics is inviting applications for a project on glycol-engineering of therapeutic antibodies. This one-year renewable position is available immediately within the Cecioni research group at Universite de Montreal but the project is built around a strong collaborative team including Pr. Pelletier (UdeM), Pr. Rullo (McMaster) and Pr. Kwan (Concordia).

Area of research:

The advent of biopharmaceuticals is revolutionizing health care, opening up entirely new avenues against diseases that are difficult to treat using traditional drugs. In a rapidly changing industry, more than 50% of Top 10 drugs now consist of monoclonal therapeutic antibodies. To be efficient, they also require post-translational glycosylation, which means the antibody is linked to a complex structure of various sugars (i.e. glycans). Consequently, most therapeutic mAbs are still not single homogenous proteins. This glycosylation of key conserved residues remains difficult to control, thereby imposing a significant burden on the development and use of therapeutic antibodies.

Project:

In that context, we will develop better strategies for controlling the structure and homogeneity of mAbs glycans (sugars). In particular, we will leverage chemo-enzymatic technologies in continuous flow in order to scale up engineering of glycosylation, potentially making a high impact on biomedical research and biotech industry.

We propose to address current limitations using innovative approaches in bioengineering, continuous flow biocatalysis and synthetic biology.

Candidates:

We are currently inviting applications from highly motivated researchers with a broad interest and expertise in chemical biology, biocatalysis and bioengineering toward improving human health. Selected scientists will demonstrate great problem-solving skills, a deep interest for innovative therapeutic approaches and a strong theoretical and experimental background in bio-organic chemistry, in biochemistry and/or bioanalytical sciences. Specifically, we are looking for scientists that have demonstrated exceptional research abilities and leadership. Candidates should be proficient at biochemistry techniques such as protein purification, enzymatic activity measurements, bioanalytical methods (FPLC, HPLC, LC-MS/MS), flow biocatalysis as well as complex data set analysis.

At Universite de Montreal, postdoctoral researchers are supported in accordance with UdeM's postdoc collective agreement (salary, paid holidays, healthcare benefits). More information is available on:

For more information on this project or on glycoscience, please contact Prof. Cecioni and visit the group website .

How to apply:

Applicants should send their application file to Prof. Cecioni ( ). Application should include a resume, a cover letter highlighting significant accomplishments and contact details for at least 2 potential references.

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