Engineer position (IE) for FluidFM/Live-Seq project (F/M)

Institut Curie; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Institut Curie’s Single Cell Initiative seeks a highly motivated research engineer with expertise in atomic force microscopy and microfluidics to advance Live-Seq technology. You will develop and optimize FluidFM protocols and support users in implementing Live-Seq projects.

The role involves expanding capabilities, collaborating with the CSCO platform and the UMR 168 lab, and contributing to the integration of single-cell workflows for dynamic transcriptome analysis.

Qualifications

• Requires strong expertise in atomic force microscopy.
• Experience with microfluidics is essential.
• Motivated researcher capable of independent work.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize FluidFM protocols for Live-Seq.
• Train internal and external users in Live-Seq implementations.
• Explore broader FluidFM applications such as cell injection and micromanipulation.
• Collaborate with CSCO and UMR 168 for integration into workflows.

Skills

Atomic force microscopy

Microfluidics

Tools

FluidFM

Job description

Platform

The Institut Curie Single Cell Initiative is a strategic program bringing together several core facilities to advance next-generation single-cell and spatial omics approaches. Its mission is to foster technological innovation and enable cutting-edge research in fundamental, translational, and clinical oncology.

The initiative encompasses a broad range of approaches, including transcriptomics, epigenomics, multi-omics analysis, and spatial biology. It supports projects from methodological development through to data generation and analysis.

As part of this mission, the Single Cell Initiative continuously develops and evaluates emerging technologies with high scientific potential. Since 2023, it has established the Live-Seq technology at Institut Curie, which enables the extraction of a small fraction of the cytoplasm from a living cell without compromising cell viability (Chen et al., 2022). The RNA content of these cellular biopsies can subsequently be sequenced, enabling the dynamic study of cellular states and their evolution over time. This unique approach makes it possible to directly link a cell’s transcriptome to its subsequent behavior.

Position

Live-Seq is based on FluidFM (Fluidic Force Microscopy), a technology that combines atomic force microscopy for precise manipulation and force measurements with microfluidics for the controlled aspiration of picoliter volumes.

The Single Cell Initiative is seeking a highly motivated research engineer with strong expertise in atomic force microscopy and/or microfluidics to further develop and expand this technology at Institut Curie.

The successful candidate will be responsible for developing and optimizing FluidFM protocols for Live-Seq applications, as well as training and supporting internal and external users in the implementation of their own Live-Seq projects.

The candidate will also explore the broader capabilities of FluidFM for single-cell manipulation, including applications such as cell injection, micromanipulation, and related approaches.

This project is a collaboration between the Single Cell Initiative and the Physics of Cells and Cancer Laboratory (UMR 168). Within the Single Cell Initiative, the successful candidate will interact closely with the engineers of the Custom Single Cell Omics (CSCO) platform, who provide expertise in biomolecular single-cell workflows involving low-input samples. The UMR 168 lab contributes specialized technical expertise in FluidFM technology.