Job Description
Project Description
Chemical synapses are the fundamental units of communication in the nervous system. They release neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles organized in functionally distinct pools with different activation thresholds: the readily releasable pool (RRP) fuses immediately upon stimulation, the recycling pool sustains ongoing activity, and the reserve pool is mobilized only under prolonged stimulation. The molecular and structural determinants that define these pools, and that regulate the transition of vesicles between them, remain incompletely understood. The PhD project in the group of Prof. Benoît Zuber aims to dissect the molecular composition and three-dimensional architecture of synaptic vesicle pools using cryo‑electron tomography of neuronal preparations, combined with affinity labelling approaches (e.g. ferritag) to localize key proteins in situ.
We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student who is willing to work interdisciplinary in th...