The present PhD project is part of the DYNABIO doctoral program (Dynamics of Biomolecular Networks), an interdisciplinary initiative supported by the Université Côte d’Azur that promotes research at the interfaces of biology, computation, physics, and quantitative sciences.
DYNABIO brings together more than 80 research teams from multiple institutes — including C3M and ISA — and fosters collaborations spanning biological data science, biological network modeling, and the chemistry of biological systems. Its core mission is to deepen our understanding of the architecture and dynamic regulation of biomolecular networks by uniting experimental biology with computational and physical sciences, thereby training doctoral researchers to tackle fundamental questions across model organisms and biological scales.

Within this vibrant interdisciplinary ecosystem, the doctoral candidate will conduct research jointly at two leading laboratories. At the C3M – Centre Méditerranéen de Médecine Moléculaire in Nice, the focus will be on human and animal microRNA mechanisms, benefitting from cutting-edge expertise in gene expression control and cellular regulation.
Concurrently, at the INRAE – Institut Sophia Agrobiotech in Sophia Antipolis, the candidate will engage with research centered on plant biology and plant–nematode interactions, accessing strengths in vegetal molecular mechanisms and host–parasite communication. This shared appointment reflects the project’s cross-kingdom scope and provides access to complementary experimental and computational resources.

The overarching aim of this PhD research is to elucidate the physical determinants of microRNA (miRNA) binding activity across eukaryotic systems, with attention to both conserved principles and kingdom-specific features. The project will integrate bioinformatics and biophysical modeling to develop a mechanistic framework for miRNA–target interactions, spanning animal and plant regulatory logic.

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