Postdoctoral Positions, University of Leuven, Belgium (2016)

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, which are often complicated by the ability of this pathogen to grow as biofilms on indwelling medical devices.

In the frame of an ERC programme, postdoctoral positions (1 to 4 years) are available in the Dufrene team to study S. aureus biofilms at the single-molecule and single-cell levels using innovative atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques: i) development of novel AFM-based methods for probing bacterial surfaces, ii) detailed understanding of the nanoscale properties and interactions of S. aureus, iii) analyzing specific peptides and antibodies capable top block S. aureus adhesion.

The research will lead to an unconventional methodology for the high throughput and high resolution characterization of adhesion forces in bacterial pathogens, and will provide a new screening method for the fast, label-free analysis of anti-adhesion compounds targeting S. aureus.

Further details:
http://academicpositions.eu