Investigador posdoctoral

Introduction to the vacant position:

Shielded by a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymers, bacteria growing in biofilms survive antibiotic concentrations orders of magnitude above those that eradicate the same strain in suspension. The matrix limits penetration, internal gradients generate tolerant and dormant subpopulations, and the resulting reservoir sustains chronic, recurrent infection. Incremental improvement of existing antibiotics will not solve this. It requires a mechanism of action that does not depend on chemistry at all.

The Quasi-Living Materials Research Group is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to determine whether such a mechanism works inside biofilms. The contract will be within the framework of the Project PhagoSynCell (ERC CoG). Our ambition is to create drug-free, living-like therapeutics, opening radical new avenues in the fight against multidrug resistance. We developed synthetic cells that fight bacteria using a biomimetic form of artificial phagocytosis, a process to date only observed in living organisms. These phagocytic synthetic cells (PSCs) destroy bacteria by physically engulfing them, a route no antibiotic uses, and one to which resistance cannot be acquired by the mechanisms that defeat conventional drugs.

Whether artificial phagocytosis survives contact with a biofilm is an open question. The matrix that defeats antibiotics may equally trap a synthetic predator, or it may be the very medium through which a soft, deformable vesicle can travel. You will answer it and optimized the system for maximum antimicrobial effect. This position brings microbiology into a group built on chemistry and biophysics, and it is the expertise we do not have: you will own the bacterial side of the project. You will work with our full infrastructure for vesicle assembly, synthesis and interaction analysis, with access to IBEC’s BSL-2 facilities, and in collaboration with ISGlobal as well as our international network of antimicrobial-resistance specialists across Europe, Asia and the United States.

Main tasks and responsibilities:

• Establish and characterise in vitro biofilm models of clinically relevant, antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
• Quantify the bactericidal activity of a library of PSC compositions against planktonic and biofilm-grown bacteria, using time-kill curve analysis, MBEC/Calgary-type assays and colony counting.
• Extend the testing to clinical isolates and to physiologically relevant media, including mucus.
• Use confocal laser scanning microscopy to observe engulfment and killing in real time, to determine whether PSCs penetrate the biofilm matrix, and to establish the fate of engulfed bacteria — whether they die, remain latent, or escape.
• Deliver the correlation between PSC composition and antibacterial efficacy across planktonic, biofilm and clinical conditions.
• Assess in vitro cytocompatibility of selected PSC formulations in cell lines, using viability, live/dead and metabolic activity assays.
• Work closely with the chemists and biophysicists in the group, and with our collaborators at ISGlobal and in our international antimicrobial-resistance network..

Requirements for candidates:

Essential:

• An excellence-driven, highly motivated, ambitious, resilient person who loves interdisciplinary fundamental research and applications in medicine.
• PhD in Microbiology, Microbiology-oriented Biomedicine, Biotechnology or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with bacterial biofilms is essential: establishing and characterising in vitro biofilm models, and quantifying biofilm biomass, architecture and viability.
• Experience in antimicrobial efficacy testing: MIC/MBC determination, time-kill curve analysis, MBEC/Calgary-type assays and CFU quantification.
• Experience working with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and clinical isolates under BSL-2 conditions.
• Experience in confocal laser scanning microscopy of biological samples, including live/dead staining and quantitative image analysis.
• Experience in mammalian cell culture and in vitro cytocompatibility assays.
• Proven ability to run a project independently and deliver results on a demanding timeline.
• Enthusiasm for working at the interface with chemists and physicists in a strongly interdisciplinary team.
• Competencies and skills: Communication, Teamwork and collaboration, Commitment, Proactivity, Integrity, Critical and Analytical thinking.
• High level of English.
• Align with the team’s values and vision.

Advantageous:

• Experience with respiratory pathogens and other clinically relevant Gram-positive and Gram-negative species.
• Flow-cell or microfluidic biofilm systems, and live imaging of transport through biological matrices.
• Advanced quantitative image analysis (Fiji/ImageJ, Imaris), including particle tracking.
• Experience testing antimicrobials in complex biological media such as mucus.
• Molecular microbiology: antimicrobial resistance determinants, virulence factors, hypermutability, genome sequencing.
• Familiarity with nanomedicine, liposomes, vesicles or other colloidal delivery systems.

Competencies and Skills:

We value not only technical expertise but also the demonstration of core competencies such as Communication, Teamwork and Collaboration, Commitment, Proactivity, Integrity, and Critical and Analytical Thinking.

We Offer:

• Number of available positions: 1
• Starting date: 01/11/2026
• Working conditions:
• Full time, Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration.
• Measures to reconcile work and family life (parental leave, flexible schedule working hours, 23 working days of paid holidays, 9 leave days for personal matters, among others).
• IBEC ensures equality of access to professional development opportunities irrespective of employment status, length at IBEC or other factors. The IBEC’s yearly training catalogue offers a wide range of training in technical and transferable skills including mobility grants and a Mentoring programme for predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
• Stimulating, interdisciplinary research and high-quality international scientific environment.
• Induction programme to facilitate incorporation at IBEC and additional support is provided for foreigners to obtain Visa-working permit and to install in Barcelona.

How to apply:

Until 06/09/2026 an online application form is available through IBEC dedicated site: https://careers.ibecbarcelona.eu/ including an original cover letter for the specific position stating why you want this position and why you are the right candidate for this position. Please also include the contact of two supporting references willing to be contacted.

Only those applications submitted before the deadline will be evaluated.

Reference: PD-CR

If you have any further question regarding your application, please contact us at [email protected]

Principles of the selection process:

IBEC is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit based Recruitment principles (OTM-R) https://ibecbarcelona.eu/careers-at-ibec/jobs/

IBEC´s Commitment on equal opportunity, diversity, and Inclusion:

Our strength and excellence as an international transdisciplinary Research Institute are based on diversity. Being an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to diversity and inclusion, so that we support employees irrespective of their gender, nationality, religion, disabilities, age, sexual identity or cultural and socioeconomic background.

Visit our devoted webpage on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

For candidates with children that come from outside Barcelona, we offer babysitting services during the interview, so you don’t have to worry about anything else than doing a good interview. Contact us if you are interested in this service.

In categories where women are underrepresented, such as Group Leader positions, and with the aim of ensuring gender balance in recruitment processes, women candidates must represent at least 50% of those interviewed for Junior-level positions and 40% for Senior-level positions, provided they have CVs comparable to those of male candidates. At the end of the evaluation process, in cases of equal merit, preference will be given to women candidates.

IBEC, as a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), will consider, especially for early-stage investigators, much more the scientific content of research outputs, than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it were published.

Protection of personal data:

IBEC guarantees that candidates’ personal data are processed in accordance with the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Law 3/2018 on Data Protection.

Personal data will be processed solely for the purposes of the selection process.

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