PhD Position in Synthetic Chemistry

Mission and field of activity
The research project “Impact of Chirality in the Discrimination of Hypoxia-Inducible Factors by Anticancer Rhenium Tricarbonyl Complexes” will be performed under the lead of Prof. Olimpia Mamula Steiner in collaboration with the University of Fribourg’s Department of Chemistry (Prof. F. Zobi) and Department of Medicine (Prof. D. Hoogewijs). The project is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation and pursues an in-depth systematic approach in order to understand the influence of chirality on the biological activity of enantiopure anticancer / antibiotic rhenium complexes. The PhD position advertised here concerns mainly the design, synthesis and characterisation of Re(I) complexes with new, enantiopure ligands.

Profile
The ideal candidate would have:

• an M.Sc. degree in Chemistry
• excellent, proven skills in multistep organic synthesis and design of synthetic routes
• strong interest for coordination chemistry and (biomedical) applications of metal complexes
• experience with standard characterization and purification techniques (NMR, MS, chromatography, etc.)
• self-motivation, creativity and ambition to perform cutting-edge research in a transdisciplinary team
• proficiency in written and spoken English, with strong communication skills
• motivation to present the results at international conferences, to write articles and patents