Early stage Researcher (ESR) positions for structure-based drug discovery at AEGIS

The ITN project AEGIS (Accelerated Early staGe drug dIScovery) focusses on interdisciplinary training in early stage drug discovery. It aims to implement the first comprehensive, cross-disciplinary and structured curriculum for doctoral students in state-of-the-art techniques in target-based drug discovery. The programme is realized jointly by 27 academic and industrial institutions within EU and Switzerland. The AEGIS research programme combines advanced and innovative methodologies to develop a novel integrated approach to advance early drug discovery.

Key features of the research programme are:
- Employing an interdisciplinary approach partnering academia and industry to early drug discovery,
- Develop innovative approaches to tackle difficult targets by exploring dynamic properties of target biomolecules,
- Discover novel chemical entities by combining fragment based drug discovery and innovative chemistry,
- Improving chemical diversity by computational approaches
- Focus on diseases that are major threat for human health both within EU and globally. A strong emphasis is given to neglected, tropical diseases (malaria, trypanosomiasis).

AEGIS combines fragment-based approaches, interface dynamics study, structural study (X-ray and NMR), multicomponent chemistry and kinetic analysis as well as advanced virtual screening technologies to achieve a new level of efficiency in target-based drug discovery.

The PhD students of AEGIS will take part in realization of the research programme. They are expected to realize their main research within host institution as well as participate in exchange between academic and industrial AEGIS partners, take part in workshops and seminars.

Eligibility criteria
Eligible applicants for these Fellowships (equivalent to PhD positions) must hold a Masters degree of Science (MSc) in the field in chemistry, biochemistry, physical, life sciences or computational sciences as requested in the respective job description.

According to the Marie Curie ITN guidelines, eligible candidates must, at the time of selection by the host organisation, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of their research careers. This is measured from the date when they have obtained their masters degree.

Applicants can be of any nationality. They are required to undertake transnational mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) when taking up their appointment. At the time of recruitment by the host beneficiary, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date.

Excellent Knowledge of the English language is necessary.

Deadline for applications: 20.12.2015