Mots-Clés
RNA, drug-design
Description
M2 Internship
Characterization and detection of RNA binding pockets
RNA is an emerging target for drug discovery and the study of RNA macro molecules has been brought under the spotlight by the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
A focus of our research group is to develop an approach for the exploration of RNA molecules to guide drug design and select potential candidates for the formation of a stable complex with a drug. This goal requires on the one hand to characterize the ensemble of structures adopted by a given RNA sequence, and, on the other, characterization of RNA-ligand interactions by defining profiles of RNA binding sites and of corresponding ligands using the increasing experimental RNA structural information available.
The aim of this project is to develop a structure-based binding site predictor using our recently introduced Statistical Molecular Interaction Fields to identify druggable RNA binding sites in and to investigate the formation of RNA/ligand complexes in the context of the molecule’s conformational ensemble.
To this end, the student will analyze simulations of RNA already available and continue the development of our binding site predictor to be applied to ensembles of structures detected in simulations.
The work is part of a large project on the characterization of RNA polymorphism in relation to drug design.
We are looking for candidates in a program of computational biophysics, theoretical chemistry, or computational biology, with good programming skills in python and some knowledge of molecular simulations.
If interested, send a CV and a motivation letter to Pr. Samuela Pasquali (samuela.pasquali@u-paris.fr) and arrange for one recommendation letter to be sent to her directly by a previous internship supervisor or head of the master program.