Early Stage Research Training – Marie Curie Action
ESTeam, an European Training programme in Marine Biology
FP6-EST-ESTeam
2006-2010
Deadline : May 26th 2006
Interviews : June 15-16th 2006
Starting in September 2006
ESTeam is a training programme for pre-doctoral fellows funded by the European Commission under the 6th framework programme. It provides early stage researchers with an advanced, interdisciplinary training in marine biology, with an emphasis on genomics, genetics and structural biology.
Located in Britanny (France), the Station Biologique de Roscoff (SBR) is a leading marine biology laboratory, with a focus on the genomics approaches on marine models and ecosystems.
Under ESTeam, the SBR proposes, over a 4-year period, to host 9 early stage researchers for completing a PhD thesis, starting in 2006, within its research teams and to incorporate 4 researchers for 1 year stay in its technological platforms, starting in 2007 and 2008.
http://marmic.mpg.de/marmic_cms/uploads_edit/abstracts_ESTeam_Roscoff.pdf
From Sea to Pharmacy: characterization of the intracellular mechanisms of action of new inhibitors of cell proliferation derived from marine organisms (variolin B, meridianins, hymenialdisine and lamellarins)
Supervisor: Laurent Meijer
Marine organisms constitute an original source of enzymes and inhibitors with great biotechnological potential in the pharmaceutical treatment for several important human diseases.
Nowadays it is estimated that 30-35 % of drug discovery programs in the pharmaceutical industry target protein kinases, the enzymes responsible for protein phosphorylation. Currently about 60 kinase inhibitors are undergoing clinical evaluation against cancers, inflammation, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases. We have focused our efforts on the search for pharmacological inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), a class of enzymes involved in cancers, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. The selectivity of such pharmacological inhibitors and their intracellular mechanism of action remains a matter of debate and extensive investigation. Using affinity chromatography on immobilized inhibitor and yeast genetics technology, we will investigate the binding partners of four inhibitors previously identified in the laboratory. These molecules - variolin B, meridianins, hymenialdisine and lamellarins – are all natural products derived from marine organisms. The synthesis of these molecules and analogs thereof is on hand, thus circumventing the supply issue generally associated with natural products. In addition the cellular action of these compounds will be studied in terms of cell proliferation arrest and cell death induction. The aim of this study is thus the characterization and optimization of new, marine organisms-derived leads for the pharmaceutical treatment of cancers, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Training will be provided in [1] biochemistry (enzymology, affinity chromatography), [2] cell biology (cell proliferation and cell death analysis), [3] molecular biology (cloning and expression of drug targets, yeast genetics), [4] pharmacology (molecular screening, drug characterization).
Deadline for application: 26 May 2006
Interview: 15-16 June 2006
Start in September 2006