Postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) within medicinal chemistry at Umeå university

Postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) within medicinal chemistry

The Department of Chemistry is offering a postdoctoral scholarship within medicinal chemistry with focus on reactivation mechanism that can be used in the development of new effective antidotes. The scholarship is full-time for two years with access 1 February 2025 or by agreement. Last day to apply is 10 January 2025.

Project description

The proposed research project targets the current lack of satisfying therapeutic treatments of nerve agent intoxications. The aim of the project is to use medicinal chemistry to investigate the release of the toxicodynamics effects of nerve agents by oxime reactivators at a molecular and physical level (the reactivation). The focus is to synthesize oximes to study the reactivation mechanism of oxime antidotes including the displacement rates of the nerve agent adducts formed with the catalytic serine of acetylcholinesterase. Furthermore, the results will be used in an iterative manner to design and synthesize new more efficient medical countermeasures that will be evaluated in collaboration.

The Kempe foundation funds this two-year postdoctoral scholarship. The scholarship amount is 350 000 SEK per year. The scholarship is not subject to tax. The PI covers running costs for the project.

Qualifications

To qualify as a postdoctoral scholarship holder, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirements must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the decision about scholarship recipient.

Priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree prior to that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organizations, military service, or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area.

Doctoral degree should be within medicinal chemistry or equivalent.

This project will be carried out within a research group that uses multidisciplinary approaches to address medicinal chemistry research questions. You should have a genuine interest in organic- and medicinal chemistry and be prepared to take on scientific and technical challenges .

Additional requirements are:

Very good command of the English language, both written and spoken.

Competence and research experience of organic chemistry including synthetic organic chemistry, as well as training and/or experience in medicinal chemistry.

Meriting criteria are:

Competence and experience of computational chemistry

We are looking for candidates who is creative, with good interpersonal and collaborative skills, power of initiative, and a high degree of independence.

Application

A full application should include:

• - A cover letter summarizing your qualifications, your scientific interests, your motives for applying, and how you feel you meet the essential and meriting criteria (max 2 pages),
• - Curriculum vitae (CV) with publication list,
• - Copy of doctoral degree certificate or documentation that clarifies when the degree of doctor is expected to be obtained,
• - Copies of other diplomas, list of completed academic courses and grades,
• - Copy of doctoral thesis and up to 5 relevant articles,
• - Other documents that the applicant wishes to claim.
• - Contact information to two persons willing to act as references.

The application should be written in English (preferably) or Swedish. Your complete application, marked with reference number FS 2.1.6-2336-24 , should be sent electronically (in PDF format) to medel@diarie.umu.se (with reference number on the subject line). The last date to apply is 2025-01-10. 

More information

Further details are provided by professor Anna Linusson, e-mail: anna.linusson@umu.se, phone: +46(0)90-7866890.

About us

The Department of Chemistry is one of the largest departments within the Faculty of Science and Technology with approximately 200 employees and strong and expanding research. The Department has four major research areas: Biological Chemistry, IBEAM, Organic chemistry and Technical Chemistry. We are also a strong partner in the KBC, Chemical-Biological Center.