DC 4: Joséphine Cherrière
Joséphine Cherrière (France) studied chemistry with a strong interdisciplinary background in biology, having completed a dual Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Biology at Université Paris-Saclay (France) from 2020 to 2023. During her undergraduate studies, she engaged in collaborative, transdisciplinary research projects, including the investigation of indazole’s effects on cancer cells under the supervision of Prof. David Kreher, and the study of DNA topology with Dr. Marc Nadal at the Institut de Biologie of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In her final undergraduate year, she also participated in the Île-de-France Interuniversity Chemistry Challenge, where she was awarded the first individual prize.
Driven by a strong interest in analytical techniques applied to life sciences, Joséphine pursued a Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry for Life Sciences, jointly offered by Sorbonne Université and ENS-PSL (2023–2024). Alongside her academic training, she joined Sanofi’s Research Division in Vitry-sur-Seine (France) as an apprentice, where she contributed to the development and application of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods for the pharmacokinetic analysis of biotherapeutics. Her research was supervised by Dr. Gwendolyne Hellé at Sanofi and Prof. Emmanuelle Sachon at Sorbonne Université.
Joséphine is also interested in the use of artificial intelligence in drug discovery and completed a remote course on AI in healthcare in June 2025, offered by the Faculty of Pharmacy at Université Paris-Saclay.
Starting in November 2025, she will join the group of Prof. Jörn Dengjel. Her research will contribute to the identification of novel therapeutic targets and drug candidates. She will focus on mapping the direct interactors of mTORC1 using mass spectrometry-based proteomics, aiming to gain new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying disease processes.
Planned secondments: 3 months at UKESSEN for metabolome analysis of cells with phosphosite variants of novel mTORC1 targets. 3 months at Topadur for analysis of mTOR inhibitor.
University Clinic of Essen
3 monthsEssen, Germany
Topadur
3 monthsSchlieren, Switzerland
My research project
Several mTORC1 substrates with functions in anabolic and catabolic processes have been uncovered but their contribution and interplay in mediating mTORC1’s pathophysiological outputs is poorly understood, and we likely still miss a plethora of targets involved in these processes. State of the art shotgun phosphoproteomic approaches do not provide the full picture as they do not allow to distinguish whether phosphorylations are mediated by the kinase-of-interest itself or by an unknown downstream effector kinase. We have developed an on-column in vitro kinase assay (OBIKA) that allows the unbiased screen of complex, proteome-scale samples for direct kinase targets. The PhD candidate will combine OBIKA with in vivo phosphoproteomics to comprehensively identify mTORC1 substrates. Kinases directly interact with their substrates to perform phosphorylation reactions. Proximity labelling based on the miniTurbo-approach will allow to investigate stimulus-dependent protein neighbourhoods of mTORC1. To study the relevance of newly identified proteins and phosphosites in metabolic regulation, the doctoral candidate will CRISPR or overexpress up to 10 candidates and analyse their effects on mTORC1-driven cell growth, proliferation and metabolism. Inactive Ala and phospho-mimicking Asp/Glu variants will allow to study the relevance of single phosphosites. The potential of new molecular targets to serve as drug targets will be evaluated jointly with medical chemistry labs in the MENTOR.
PhD enrolment : 
DC 3: Kexing Gao