Postdoctoral Associate- Chemical Biology

Summary

The postdoctoral researcher will have an opportunity to help build a lab from the ground up, determining not just their project to work on, but also the lab's culture. This role would be ideal for someone who likes to wear many hats.

They will use their expertise to design, synthesize, and test new DNA-targeting molecules for cancer or neurodegenerative disease. Techniques employed include chemical biology, molecular biology, and genome biology.

About the Erwin Lab:

The Erwin Lab investigates the functional role of repetitive DNA with a focus on translating these discoveries into new diagnostics and therapies for human health. Our research vision is based on two discoveries. First, Graham developed a new class of synthetic transcriptional regulators that target repetitive DNA sequences with high affinity and specificity (Erwin et al, Science 2017). The resulting patents were licensed by a startup company who initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial for patients with Friedreich's ataxia earlier this year. Second, Graham uncovered that recurrent repeat expansions represent an overlooked source of genetic variation in cancer (Erwin et al, Nature, 2023). The Erwin Lab is building on these discoveries with the development and application of tools in genomics, molecular biology, and chemical biology. Our goal is to uncover the functions of repetitive DNA, the final frontier of the genome.

Job Duties

• Reads the literature to develop an independent project in the context of programmable DNA binders
• Designs, synthesizes, and functionally characterizes DNA-binding ligands and bifunctional conjugates
• Cultures human cancer cell lines and cell lines derived from patients with neurodegenerative disease or cancer
• Analyzes genomics data generated in-house and data from publicly available datasets
• Performs other job related duties as needed.
  

Minimum Qualifications

• MD or Ph.D. in Basic Science, Health Science, or a related field.
• No experience required.