Postdoctoral Research

Postdoctoral Position at Columbia University

Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy

One postdoctoral research position is available immediately in the laboratory of Charles Drake, MD, PhD at Columbia University. The main focus of the Drake laboratory is to investigate mechanisms of resistance of genitourinary cancers (prostate, bladder and kidney) to cancer therapy, with an emphasis on improving clinical responses to immunotherapy and checkpoint blockade. 

Current projects include (but are not limited to) investigation into the relationship between tumor-derived factors induced during development of resistance to conventional therapies and recruitment/functional polarization of immunosuppressive myeloid populations such as tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs).

There is a strong translational focus in the lab, where basic mechanistic studies are leveraged as proof-of-concept data to open new immunotherapy-based clinical trials at Columbia. Close integration with clinicians as well as a new Human Immune Monitoring Core allows for design of sophisticated correlative studies with patient tissue using novel techniques such as mass cytometry, single cell RNA sequencing, and multi-spectral immunohistochemistry.

The lab is highly collaborative across both academia and industry, and thus has access to a broad range of unique transgenic animal models of cancer, novel biologic and small molecule-based immunotherapeutics, and access to bioinformatics expertise at Columbia for cutting-edge analysis of high dimensional single cell data sets.

Successful candidates will have a PhD and/or MD degree, and a strong background in human and mouse immunology and/or immuno-oncology.  Experience in high dimensional cytometry, RNA sequencing, and/or computational analysis of large datasets is a plus.  To apply for these positions, please send your CV with names/contact info of 3 references to Dr. Charles Drake (cgd2139@cumc.columbia.edu) and Melissa Honore (mih2123@cumc.columbia.edu).