27 Jan 2026
Job Information
- Organisation/Company
French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAE)- Department
1268 BIA- Research Field
Chemistry » Biochemistry- Researcher Profile
Recognised Researcher (R2)- Application Deadline
5 Mar 2026 - 23:59 (UTC)- Country
France- Type of Contract
Permanent- Job Status
Full-time- Hours Per Week
35- Offer Starting Date
1 Sep 2026- Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?
Not funded by a EU programme- Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?
No
Offer Description
You will develop your research within the Plant Wall and Parietal Polymers (PVPP) team of the Biopolymers Interactions Assemblies (BIA) unit. The BIA unit (160 staff, 98 permanent) generates knowledge on biopolymers, their assemblies within plants, their transformations, and their functionalities in food or non-food applications.
The PVPP team (30 staff, 14 permanent) aims to understand (i) the biological and physico-chemical mechanisms that drive the parietal assemblies in plants, (ii) the roles of the cell wall and its diversity in the properties and qualities of use of plant products. The laboratory is well known and recognised internationally for its skills in the variability and quality of plant resources in relation to the cell wall. You will benefit from the extensive expertise of a scientific collective specialising in the plant cell wall and strongly involved in academic and private national and international networks.
Plant biomass comprises primarily plant cell walls. From this renewable resource, our research aims to produce, through sustainable pathways, bioproducts and materials to replace fossil-based resources. The properties of use of cell walls are linked to their biopolymer composition, the presence of small molecules whose role is poorly understood, as well as the interactions between all these components to form the parietal network.
You will work on these species of low molar mass, whether they are neutral or ionic, organic (e.g. mono-, oligo-saccharides) and inorganic (salts), and have an osmotic, reactive or structural effect. You will seek to elucidate how they contribute to the properties of the parietal network and the interactions they establish with polymers (polysaccharides, lignin, cutin, proteins) in relation to the availability and mobility of water.
You will study the effect of the nature and concentration of different soluble species on the mobility of biopolymers, as well as the properties or accessibility of the parietal network to understand their impact on cell walls, and ultimately drive their transformation. This research will help you understand and optimise biomass behaviour during fractionation or processing, and propose pertinent conversion pathways in the context of a bioeconomy (extraction by selective solubilisation, saccharification, etc.).
To elucidate the role of small molecules in the parietal network, the various potential experimental strategies will involve (i) the identification, quantification, and location of these low molar mass molecules, (ii) the measurement of interactions between these molecules and the parietal polymers, whether of covalent, ionic, hydrophobic, sterical nature, for example, (iii) the study of the mobility of water and polymers in the presence of these molecules in controlled assemblies, single cell walls or tissues, (iv) the measurement of different properties of the tissues.
In the longer term, the data obtained at the interface between the various disciplines implicated will enable you to understand the effect of these small molecules on the degradability of the cell walls, the extractability of the compounds of interest, the activity of endogenous enzymes or enzymes used in processing methods, or even the functionalisation of parietal polymers.
Within the team and the BIA unit, you will have at your disposal high-performance equipment dedicated to the characterisation of cell walls, the state of water, and the structure of the polymers and their interactions. You will also have access to structural biology platforms (BIBS, APEX) and the beamlines of the synchrotron SOLEIL. You will benefit from national and international collaborations in place within the team on the different aspects of your theme. Initially, the implementation of your research will be supported by current projects in progress led by senior researchers within the team (such as ANR, PEPR, FSOV, Horizon Europe). You will then develop your own network of collaborations and apply for support within the institute, as well as from national and international sources.
Where to apply
- Website
- https://jobs.inrae.fr/en/open-competitions/open-competions-research-scientists-…
Requirements
- Research Field
- Chemistry
- Education Level
- PhD or equivalent
Additional Information
- Website for additional job details
https://jobs.inrae.fr/en/open-competitions/open-competions-research-scientists-…
Work Location(s)
- Number of offers available
- 1
- Company/Institute
- French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAE)
- Country
- France
- City
- NANTES
- Postal Code
- 44300
- Geofield
Contact
- City
NANTES- Website
https://jobs.inrae.fr/en/open-competitions/open-competions-research-scientists-crcn- Postal Code
44300
bernard.cathala@inrae.fr
STATUS: EXPIRED
- X (formerly Twitter)
More share options- Viadeo
- Gmail
- Blogger
- Qzone
- YahooMail