ProtoMet (acronym of the project “Protometabolic pathways: exploring the chemical roots of systems biology” funded by European Union through the European Training Network H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (ITN) – GA n. 813873) will offer the opportunity to motivated international Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to address the tremendous challenge of understanding how prebiotic chemistry gave rise to life by training a new generation of scientists to think big, but also to work methodically and logically alongside colleagues from academia and industry.

The goal of the project led by the University of Strasbourg (ESR2) is to identify potential catalytic feedback effects resulting from the products of a primitive metabolism. For instance, can short peptides, which are made from amino acids, enable ligand-accelerated catalysis in reactions that produce amino acids, such as in the metal-catalysed transamination of ketoacids? Can chirality be transmitted from peptide to amino acid, and if so, does this transmission exhibit non-linearity? These investigations will shed light on how a primitive metabolism can self-complexify before the onset of Darwinian evolution and may also provide insight into the origin of biological homochirality.

Your background: A master degree / level in chemistry. Possessing at least the B2 level of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) in English.

How to Apply

Send detailed CV and motivation letter to moran@unistra.fr mentioning “Protomet PhD recruitment” in the subject. The deadline for application is January, 15th 2019.