Organisation/Company: CNRS Department Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien. Research Field: Chemistry – Physical chemistry – Computational chemistry. Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1). Country: France. Application Deadline: 9 Dec 2025 – 23:59 (UTC). Type of Contract: Temporary – Full-time. Hours per week: 35. Offer Starting Date: 1 Feb 2026. Funded by EU Research Framework Programme: No. Related to Research Infrastructure: No.
Offer Description
The Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert CURIEN (IPHC), a joint research unit under the joint supervision of CNRS and the University of Strasbourg (UMR7178), is a multidisciplinary laboratory where research teams from different scientific cultures (ecology, physiology and ethology, chemistry and subatomic physics) develop very high level programs based on scientific instrumentation. The IPHC is structured into four departments and has a total staff of 393, including 257 permanent staff (119 researchers and teachers/researchers, 138 engineers and technicians), 46 staff on fixed‑term contracts and 102 doctoral students.
The PhD student will join the "Laboratoire de Spectrométrie de Masse Bio‑Organique" (LSMBO) team of the IPHC and will be able to benefit from all the material conditions (LC‑MS/MS instrumentation), human support (sharing of expertise) and IT (access to all the software tools for the processing of LC‑MS/MS data) necessary for the successful completion of this thesis project.
Expected Skills

Hold a master's degree in analytical science.
Solid knowledge of protein biochemistry, proteins and nucleic acids, mass spectrometry and chromatography.
Experience with mass spectrometry and chromatography; experience in proteomics and XL‑MS is a strong advantage.
Fluency in English, both written and oral, at level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).
Strong motivation, curiosity to expand expertise, autonomy and ability to work in a team under strong constraints to meet deadlines.

Additional Requirements

Candidate must hold a master's and/or engineering degree.
Prove solid knowledge of (bio)informatics data analysis and programming languages (notably Python); prior experience with machine learning or AI methods is required.
A strong interest in biology and/or biochemistry will be an advantage.
Good command of written and spoken English (B2). This is required to report regularly and present results to collaborators and at conferences.

Benefits

Administrative restaurant.
Partial reimbursement of travel expenses.
Works council.
Possibility of teleworking.
Training to adapt to the job.

Application Process
Applications should include a detailed CV, a letter of motivation, a summary of the Master's thesis, and the grades of Master 1 and 2.
Objectives of the Thesis
The objective of this PhD will be to develop structural mass spectrometry methods, mainly based on native mass spectrometry (nMS) and cross‑linking (XL‑MS), for the characterisation of protein/protein or protein/nucleic acid complexes involved in co‑transcriptional mRNA splicing events. As part of the ANR COTRANSPLICE project, the candidate will develop sensitive and robust proteomic analytical workflows based on MS for chemical cross‑linking of proteins/proteins and proteins/nucleic acids. This will involve the development of new LC‑MS/MS methods to improve the enrichment, separation, and identification of conjugated peptides in vitro and in vivo. The thesis work will allow the PhD student to use state‑of‑the‑art mass spectrometry instruments (Eclipse Tribrid Orbitrap, TimsTOF, ASTRAL). These workflows will then be applied to biological complexes and sub‑complexes involved in co‑transcriptional splicing, provided by our biologist collaborators, to obtain a more exhaustive and complete characterization of their role in biological processes.
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