Context

The candidate will join the research team Therapeutic peptides, modulation of protein-protein interactions (TPM2PI), affiliated with the Functional and Adaptive Biology Unit (BFA – CNRS UMR 8251 / Inserm ERL 1133), within Université Paris Cité. The team specializes in the structural modeling of biological systems.

This recruitment is part of a project funded by INFINITUS, a Chinese company specialized in the use of natural products for health and well-being (https://www.infinitus-int.com/). The objective of the project is to identify new candidate peptides of fungal origin capable of stimulating neuroendocrine signaling in keratinocytes and promoting the release of mediators associated with well-being.

Within the team, the work will focus on identifying membrane targets in keratinocytes involved in the secretion of neuroendocrine mediators, characterizing the endogenous ligands associated with these targets, and then exploring fungal genomes and proteomes to identify peptide analogues. Some of these candidate peptides will be experimentally tested in keratinocyte models.

Missions

• Identify membrane proteins expressed in keratinocytes that may regulate intracellular signaling pathways involved in neuroendocrine secretion.
• Prioritize targets according to their expression level in keratinocytes, their involvement in neuroendocrine or sensory signaling pathways, their ability to trigger intracellular calcium signaling or secretion mechanisms, and their relevance to skin physiology and well-being.
• Identify endogenous ligands associated with a shortlist of priority keratinocyte membrane targets.
• Search fungal genomes or proteomes for peptide sequences likely to act as structural or functional analogues of endogenous ligands.

Tasks

• Develop and implement a biological and bibliographic data-mining pipeline to identify candidate membrane targets expressed in keratinocytes.
• Query, cross-reference and synthesize information from public databases, omics datasets and the scientific literature in order to prioritize candidate targets.
• Identify and document endogenous ligands associated with priority targets by compiling their sequences, functional annotations, conserved motifs and available information on their interactions with receptors.
• Analyze fungal genomes and proteomes to search for peptides or peptide precursors showing similarities in sequence, motifs, properties or function with the reference endogenous ligands.
• Contribute to the functional annotation and prioritization of candidate peptides, potentially using artificial intelligence tools in a reasoned manner, as part of a controlled and biologically validated process.
• Analyze, interpret and present results in interaction with the other project partners.
• Ensure the documentation, traceability and reproducibility of the analyses: scripts, parameters, tool versions, databases used and intermediate reports.

Skills

• Sequence bioinformatics: genome/proteome analysis, sequence homology, alignments, motif/profile searches, functional annotation
• Biological data and scientific literature mining: querying public databases, extracting, cross-referencing and prioritizing information
• Use of biological databases: UniProt, NCBI/RefSeq, Ensembl/Ensembl Fungi, Gene Ontology, Reactome, etc.
• Development of bioinformatics methods and tools
• UNIX/Linux environment
• Python and Bash programming
• Git, Conda, Docker/Apptainer
• HPC usage and job scheduling, especially Slurm

• Data-mining approaches
• Basic knowledge of membrane receptor biology, GPCRs, ion channels, calcium signaling or neuropeptide signaling
• Analysis of public omics datasets: transcriptomics/proteomics, tissue or cell-type expression, preprocessed bulk or single-cell datasets
• Cellular interaction networks and signaling pathways
• Experience with fungal genomes/proteomes or annotation of secreted proteins
• Interest in the reasoned use of artificial intelligence tools to support functional annotation, data mining and candidate prioritization
• Basic knowledge of structural modeling or AlphaFold/ColabFold approaches

• Ability to interact with the team and project partners
• Curiosity, autonomy and rigor
• Ability to disseminate work through reports, publications and presentations
• Proficiency in scientific English

Profile

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in life sciences, bioinformatics or related fields
• Experience in sequence bioinformatics and biological data mining, including querying public databases, analyzing functional annotations, handling omics data and developing reproducible Python scripts

Location

Conditions

• Desired contract start date: September 2026
• Contract duration: 12 months, non-renewable
• Contract type: fixed-term contract
• Salary: according to French public service pay scales, based on profile and experience (category A – research engineer with a Bachelor’s/Master’s degree and, if possible, at least 1 year of experience)
• Offer published on 25 June 2026, displayed until 30 September 2026