Post-Doctoral Position in Chemistry, 24 months, CEMCA (Brest, France): Functional macrocyclic chelators for imaging mass cytometry

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description Abstract : Mass cytometry (MC) relies on the identification of intracellular or surface-expressed targets using antibodies coupled to metal isotope chelates. Detection is based on the difference in the time-of-flight of metal ions when placed in an electric field. For several years, MC technology was restricted to the analysis of cells in suspension, but thanks to a major development, its connection to a laser ablation system now makes it possible to analyse tissues: the samples are ionised, and their isotopic composition is then mapped to produce high-precision images comparable to fluorescence microscopy. Theorically, IMC technology has the unique capability to simultaneously stain, acquire and analyze more than 100 markers of interest on a tissue section without interference from autofluorescent tissues or management of spectral overlap. However, at present, this technology is limited to the analysis of 40 markers associated solely with the 40 metal isotopes that are actually used, which are lanthanide isotopes. This is associated to the current chemistry of MC tags those can only be loaded with few elements. To make full use of IMC and ensure a more detailed characterisation of biological samples (i.e. to increase the number of parameters that can be analysed simultaneously), it is therefore crucial to open up new detection channels, that is, to introduce new metal isotopes. In