PhD position on fungal and fungal/ bacterial biofilms in Ku Leuven

The Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology belongs to the department of Biology in the group of Science & Technology. This laboratory is also a department of the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB, vib.be). Prof. Van Dijck is one of the two professors in this unit. An important research topic in his laboratory is the understanding of the development of fungal biofilms. We mainly focus on Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. In the framework of a Belgian government funded multipartner research project, we have now an opening for a highly motivated PhD student to work on the role of nutrient sensing mechanisms and their importance during single species (Candida albicans) and mixed (C. albicans + Staphyloccocus aureus) species biofilms.

Project
Many of the microbial processes important for the establishment of infections by bacteria or fungi can be considered 'developmental processes'. For example, the transition from a planktonic cell to a biofilm cell attached to the mucosal surface of a host requires an intricate network of regulatory processes that determine the expression levels of a large number of genes. The student in the VIB department will help in the development of bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) in order to study module and genome-wide-scale protein-protein interactions (PPI) during biofilm formation. This has never been studied so far because of the limitation of the molecular tools. BiFC approach will offer the opportunity to analyze PPI in biofilms, by laser confocal microscopy of biofilms grown in vitro and in vivo. The BiFC will be used to study biofilm development and specific protein-protein interactions that occur in persister cells and not in biofilm cells, or vice versa and that occur in the presence and absence of methionine (see further). Apart from theBiFC, genome-wide expression analysis using RNA-seq or nanostring to identify genes that are differentially expressed between different in vivo biofilm models (central venous catheter versus sub-cutaneous) and between total biofilm cells and persister cells will be performed. In addition we will investigate the expression profile in single and dual species (with S. aureus) biofilms. A peculiar feature that has been observed in biofilms is the strong increase in expression of sulfur metabolism genes. These genes are normally repressed in the presence of methionine, suggesting that cells within a biofilm lack methionine. We will investigate the importance of methionine uptake and metabolism during biofilm formation by C. albicans and in mixed biofilms, both in vitro and in vivo. We have shown that Mup1, a high affinity methionine permease, is important for the yeast-to-hyphae transition, a crucial step in biofilm formation in this species. We will also investigate the role of S-adenosyl methionine, the first metabolite of methionine, for its role in epigenetics (persister cells?) and quorum sensing. We will use BiFC to analyse the proteins that interact with the different methionine transporters.

Profile
For this position we look for an enthusiastic student (Male/female) with a diploma of master in Biology, Biochemistry/Biotechnology, Applied Biological sciences or Biomedical sciences. The students should have excellent study results and preferably have experience in working with microorganisms and/or in molecular biology.
You are flexible regarding your work scheme and have no problem in working with laboratory animals.

Offer
We offer a full time (100 %) employment, initially for one year but can be prolonged up to four years. European (EER) students will be asked to also apply for personal grants at IWT or FWO.

Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Patrick Van Dijck,
mail: patrick.vandijck@mmbio.vib-kuleuven.be.