Introduction to the vacant position:
The Quasi-Living Materials Research Group is looking for a PhD student to conduct fundamental research in the areas of organic and polymer synthesis, self-assembly and biophysics towards the development of Super predatory synthetic vesicles. The contract will be within the framework of the Project PhagoSynCell (ERC CoG). Our ambition is to create drug-free, living-like therapeutics, opening radical new avenues in the fight against multidrug resistance. We will create synthetic cells that fight bacteria using a biomimetic form of artificial phagocytosis, a process to date only observed in living organisms. Towards this aim, we recently discovered that supramolecular amphiphilic comb polymers (iCPs, 10.1002/advs.202200617 and 10.1002/advs.202411497) can assemble in water in vesicles, termed combisomes, that recapitulate some of the most salient properties of cell membranes and have an unsurpassed ability to engulf them.
The PhD project: «Design of super predatory vesicles«
Cells trap and engulf pathogens by rapidly remodeling the membrane in a process termed endocytosis. Such process is used by phagocytic cells to hunt bacteria as well as to scavenge debris. This project will explore how to turn polymer-made vesicles into synthetic phagocytic cells capable of engulfing every bacteria they come across. From a thermodynamic point, ultra-flexible vesicles favor engulfment. However, this is not sufficient as the amphiphiles must have the ability to accommodate to very sharp curvature generated during the engulfment itself. This constitutes a kinetic barrier, that state-of-the-art vesicles cannot overcome. The scientific objective of this project is to explore if such kinetic barriers can be eliminated by designing the molecular topology of the amphiphile and leveraging subtle compositional heterogeneities to achieve emergent properties at the ensemble level.
Main tasks and responsibilities:
- Design and synthesize a library of comb polymers (covalent and supramolecular) using organic synthesis and controlled radical polymerization. You will be supported by molecular and assembly simulations
- Optimize assembly methods into vesicles.
- Combine microscopy, microfluidics, and physicochemical/biophysical tools to explore and dissect how the structure, topology, architecture encode the different properties and the ability to engulf objects and bacteria.
- Optimize membrane properties to achieve engulfment of pathogens. You will work with our partners who are specialists in antimicrobial resistance.
- Deliver correlation between molecular parameters and ability to engulf.
Requirements for candidates:
Essential:
- An excellence-driven, highly motivated, ambitious, resilient person who loves interdisciplinary fundamental research and applications in medicine.
- Master’s in organic and/or polymer chemistry is essential.
- Experience supramolecular assembly and coacervates as well as their characterization.
- Experience in optical microscopy including Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy, as well as in cryo-TEM and AFM.
- Experience in macromolecular characterization by NMR, FT-IR, UV-Vis, SEC, DSC, TGA, TEM.
- Competencies and skills: Communication, Teamwork and collaboration, Commitment, Proactivity, Integrity, Critical and Analytical thinking.
- High level of English
- Align with teams values and vision
Advantageous:
- Additional valuable experience or knowledge (not compulsory): soft-matter, nanoscience, biophysics, microscopy, scattering techniques, microbiology, bottom-up synthetic biology, self-assembly, or membrane systems
Competencies and Skills:
We value not only technical expertise but also the demonstration of core competencies such as Communication, Teamwork and Collaboration, Commitment, Proactivity, Integrity, and Critical and Analytical Thinking.
We Offer:
- Number of available positions: 1
- Starting date: 01/09/2026
- Working conditions:
- Full time 3-year contract.
- Measures to reconcile work and family life (parental leave, flexible schedule working hours, 23 working days of paid holidays, 9 leave days for personal matters, among others).
- IBEC ensures equality of access to professional development opportunities irrespective of employment status, length at IBEC or other factors. The IBEC’s yearly training catalogue offers a wide range of training in technical and transferable skills including mobility grants and a Mentoring programme for predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
- Stimulating, interdisciplinary research and high-quality international scientific environment.
- Induction programme to facilitate incorporation at IBEC and additional support is provided for foreigners to obtain Visa-working permit and to install in Barcelona.
How to apply:
Until 30/06/2026 an online application form is available through IBEC dedicated site: https://careers.ibecbarcelona.eu/ including an original cover letter for the specific position stating why you want this position and why you are the right candidate for this position. Please also include the contact of two supporting references willing to be contacted.
Only those applications submitted before the deadline will be evaluated.
Reference: PhD-CR.
If you have any further question regarding your application, please contact us at jobs@ibecbarcelona.eu
Principles of the selection process:
IBEC is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit based Recruitment principles (OTM-R) https://ibecbarcelona.eu/careers-at-ibec/jobs/
IBEC´s Commitment on equal opportunity, diversity, and Inclusion:
Our strength and excellence as an international transdisciplinary Research Institute are based on diversity. Being an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to diversity and inclusion, so that we support employees irrespective of their gender, nationality, religion, disabilities, age, sexual identity or cultural and socioeconomic background.
Visit our devoted webpage on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
For candidates with children that come from outside Barcelona, we offer babysitting services during the interview, so you don’t have to worry about anything else than doing a good interview. Contact us if you are interested in this service.
In categories where women are underrepresented, such as Group Leader positions, and with the aim of ensuring gender balance in recruitment processes, women candidates must represent at least 50% of those interviewed for Junior-level positions and 40% for Senior-level positions, provided they have CVs comparable to those of male candidates. At the end of the evaluation process, in cases of equal merit, preference will be given to women candidates.
IBEC, as a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), will consider, especially for early-stage investigators, much more the scientific content of research outputs, than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it were published.
Protection of personal data:
IBEC guarantees that candidates’ personal data are processed in accordance with the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Law 3/2018 on Data Protection.
Personal data will be processed solely for the purposes of the selection process.
Who we are?
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, IBEC is an interdisciplinary research center focused on Bioengineering and Nanomedicine based in Barcelona. IBEC is one of the top research institutions named as a Severo Ochoa Research Centre by the Ministry of Science, Universities and Innovation, which recognizes excellence at the highest international level in terms of research, training, human resources, outreach and technology transfer.
