Job Description: Modeling of the NMDA receptor allosteric regulation. NMDA receptors play a crucial role in a wide range of cellular processes and brain functions. The NMDARs are a major subtype of glutamate-gated ion channels which mediate the flow of Na2+ and Ca2+ cations into the cell and K+ out of the cell. The activation and opening of NMDARs require the binding of two ligands, glutamate and D-serine or glycine, combined with membrane depolarization. The recent crystallographic data, reporting architecture and domain organization of NMDAR (Nature-2014, Science-2014), is the structural basis to simulate the dynamical behavior of the receptor, aiming access to the molecular properties/processes responsible for NMDAR functions, difficult or impossible to measure experimentally. The goal of this project is to characterize the allosteric regulation of the NMDA receptor at the atomic level. The candidate’s tasks will be to perform (i) the MD simulations (all-atoms and coarse-grained); (ii) exploring the MD data to conceive a dynamical model of the ion channel; (iii) analyses of protein communication networks, by adapting our in-house tool MONETA (PLOS Comp. Biol. 2012, 2014; Faraday Disc.2014) in order to achieve an unconstrained representation of the communication networks, using statistical correlations and graph theory and (iv) using the acquired data in the development of novel modulators of the NMDAR allosteric regulation. The candidate will benefit from the multi-disciplinary expertise of the CMLA (Centre des Mathématiques et Leurs Applications, ENS Cachan), such as molecular modeling of complex signaling systems and different mathematical approaches of modeling and simulations. The project will be developed in collaboration with clinicians and biologists. Required Skills: A doctoral degree, experience in molecular dynamic simulations, broad background in the interdisciplinary fields of computational biology (Bioinformatics/Computer Science/Physics Mathematics or related areas) and English skill are required. Contact: Applications (detailed CV, letter of motivation, names of 3 references) to be sent to: luba.tchertanov@ens-cachan.fr or tchertan@ens-cachan.fr