FPU2023-PhD student in medicinal chemistry

We are looking for a motivated Master-level student that would like to perform a PhD in a project at the interface of chemistry and biology. The goal of their project will be to develop light-responsive drugs to eliminate cancer cells with high precision. A big limitation of chemotherapy is the lack of selectivity of the drugs, which leads to side effects in the patient. We hypothesise that this could be solved by developing drugs that are activated under external light. This would allow us to limit their effect to the tumour area. The student will establish a proof of concept by modifying known anticancer drugs to incorporate a light-responsive functional group. For this, they will design synthetic routes, prepare the molecules using synthetic chemistry techniques, and structurally characterise them (NMR, MS, HPLC…). They will study their photochemical properties and their biological effect on target and on cancer cell lines. The student will have the opportunity to participate in a highly interdisciplinary project, learning chemistry, biology, and photochemistry to develop new drug molecules that could have a big impact in cancer treatment. They will be part of the Medicinal Chemistry & Synthesis Group, which is working in the areas of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. We have a balance of postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, Master students, and technicians with different backgrounds including chemistry, pharmacy, biology, and biotechnology.