Postdoctoral Researcher in Mycobacteriology (M/F)

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description The primary objective of this project will be to identify novel receptors involved in phage recognition, as well as potential genes participating in the late stages of the infection process, in order to gain a deeper understanding of phage-mycobacteria interactions. Elucidating these mechanisms will improve our knowledge of the determinants governing phage-host specificity and could, in the longer term, contribute to the optimization of novel phage cocktails and the development of new phage therapy strategies. The project will involve the characterization of several environmental mycobacteriophages and the determination of their host range using a collection of clinical Mycobacterium abscessus isolates. The lytic activity and host specificity of these phages will be evaluated in vitro, both in the presence and absence of antibiotics, to investigate potential synergistic interactions between phage therapy and antibiotic treatment. In a second phase, bacterial mutants resistant to selected phages will be generated from susceptible strains. Genomic analysis of these mutants will enable the identification of genes involved in phage resistance, as well as bacterial genes required for the early and/or late stages of phage infection. This work will provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying phage-host interactions and will contribute to a better understanding of the dete