Ph.D. Thesis in Synthetic Organic/Medicinal Chemistry:
A graduate student positions is open starting in spring 2024 to carry out a Ph.D. thesis in synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry. Applicants must hold a master’s degree in chemistry with a strong background and interest in organic synthesis. The research project focuses on the computer-aided design and synthesis of drug molecules, in connection with cheminformatics tools (GDB, target prediction tools, TTLA retrosynthesis), in the area of applied collaborative projects. Recent publications of the group on this topic:

• A Potent and Selective Janus Kinase Inhibitor with a Chiral 3D‐Shaped Triquinazine Ring System from Chemical Space Kris Meier, Josep Arús-Pous and Jean-Louis Reymond, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2020, 60, 2074-2077, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202012049

• Inhibitors of human divalent metal transporters DMT1 (SLC11A2) and ZIP8 (SLC39A8) from a GDB-17 fragment library Jonai Pujol-Giménez, Marion Poirier, Sven Bühlmann, Céline Schuppisser, Rajesh Bhardwaj, Mahendra Awale, Ricardo Visini, Sacha Javor, Matthias A. Hediger, Jean-Louis Reymond, ChemMedChem, 2021, 16(21), 3306-3314, doi:10.1002/cmdc.202100467

Ph. D. Thesis in Cheminformatics: Big Data and Artificial Intelligence:
A graduate student position is open starting spring 2024 to carry out a Ph.D. thesis in cheminformatics, with emphasis on big data and artificial intelligence. Applicants must hold a master’s degree in chemistry, pharmacy, computer science, mathematics, or related areas. A strong background in code writing (Python) and data management is required.

The project focuses on developing the chemical space project dealing with the GDB databases and the selection of relevant synthetic targets. Recent publications of the group on this topic:

• Alchemical analysis of FDA approved drugs Markus Orsi, Daniel Probst, Philippe Schwaller, and Jean-Louis Reymond, RSC Digital Discovery, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3DD00039G

• Expanding Bioactive Fragment Space with the Generated Database GDB-13s Ye Buehler and Jean-Louis Reymond, J. Chem. Inf. Model., 2023, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01096

Ph.D. Thesis in Chemical Biology/Peptide Chemistry:
A graduate student position is open starting Spring 2024 to carry out a Ph.D. thesis in chemical biology. Applicants must hold a master’s degree in chemistry or biochemistry, with practical experience in chemical synthesis, and have interest to work in an interdisciplinary environment. The research projects focus on the synthesis, testing and mechanistic studies of antimicrobial peptides and peptoids. Recent publications of the group on this topic:

• X. Cai et al. An intrinsically disordered antimicrobial peptide dendrimer from stereorandomized virtual screening, Cell Rep. Phys. Sci., 2022, 3, 101161, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.101161

• To Fold or Not to Fold: Diastereomeric Optimization of an α-Helical Antimicrobial Peptide Hippolyte Personne, Thierry Paschoud, Sofia Fulgencio, Stéphane Baeriswyl, Thilo Köhler, Christian van Delden, Achim Stocker, Sacha Javor, and Jean-Louis Reymond, J. Med. Chem., 2023, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00460

General information to the Ph.D. student positions. The positions are funded as Swiss National Science Foundation level for a maximum of 4 years (completion of the thesis is expected in 3-4 years). Participation in the DCB graduate program (attendance of seminars, group seminars, summer schools and international conferences) and to teaching (approx 22 days per year in laboratory courses) is required.

For further information and applications, please contact:
jean-louis.reymond@unibe.ch.