Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Rockefeller University is the world’s leading biomedical research university. Drawing top scientists and graduate students from around the world in pursuit of one mission: to conduct science for the benefit of humanity, the University was established in 1901 as The Rockefeller Institute for Biomedical Research. This was a revolutionary concept of the time—an institute dedicated to researching the underlying causes of disease. The Rockefeller Institute Hospital, crucial to the Institute’s mission, opened in 1910. The first center for clinical research in the U.S., it remains a place where researchers can link laboratory investigations with bedside observations to provide a scientific basis for disease detection, prevention, and treatment. In 1955, The Rockefeller Institute expanded its mission to include education and admitted its first class of graduate students. In 1965, The Rockefeller Institute became The Rockefeller University, broadening its research mandate further.

Located in New York City, Rockefeller is organized around 70+ individual faculty members, each of whom runs their independent laboratory and reports directly to the President. The University has a lean administration with minimal bureaucracy to ensure an agile environment allowing scientists to pursue their most innovative ideas. There are no formal departments, and Rockefeller scientists focus on diverse facets of biomedical research, including biochemistry and biophysics, cell biology, genetics, cancer biology, immunology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and computational biology.

Rockefeller scientists are remarkably productive and empowered to perform at their best. The University has an unparalleled concentration of researchers and trainees recognized with top awards, including the world’s most prestigious biosciences prizes: over 25 Nobel Prizes (7 awarded in the last 22 years), 25 Lasker Awards, 20 National Medals of Science, 19 Gairdner Awards, 5 Breakthrough Prizes, and 4 MacArthur Fellowships. There are 35 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 18 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, and eight fellows of The Royal Society.

Rockefeller faculty have made transformational discoveries in basic biomedical science that, in turn, have led to transformational advances in clinical medicine. Discoveries in basic science include the demonstration that DNA is the chemical of heredity; that viral genes can cause cancer; that internal structures of cells, such as ribosomes and organelles, provide compartmentalization for distinct biochemical environments within cells; determination of the mechanisms by which specific proteins are trafficked to these compartments; identification of key signaling pathways that underlie a wide range of inflammatory processes; determination of the molecular mechanisms by which ion channels allow specific ions to selectively flow in or out of cells across otherwise impermeable membranes; mechanisms of circadian rhythm, the biological clocks that regulate sleep-wake cycles, activity and metabolism; fundamental mechanisms by which gene expression is turned on and off in cells; discovery of how the ends of chromosomes are protected from degradation and the consequences when this protection is lost; and identification of a hormone made by fat cells that regulates appetite and activity, and whose absence results in severe obesity.

These and other fundamental discoveries have fueled dramatic clinical advances by Rockefeller scientists and have significantly impacted global health. These include the discovery of agents that cause a wide range of infectious diseases; the discovery of the different blood groups that allowed safe transfusion of blood products; the discovery of vaccines that prevent bacterial meningitis; development of methods that allowed the discovery of drugs that cure infection with hepatitis C; development of therapeutic approaches that can provide long-term control of HIV infection; and treatment of opiate addiction with methadone. Other advances in current development include genomic approaches to discovering new classes of antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistance and developing antibodies that effectively prevent and treat HIV infection.

The University is home to 235 graduate students, 325 postdocs, and 1,325 staff. Rockefeller’s beautifully landscaped 16-acre campus on the East River in Manhattan consists of nine research buildings containing more than 500,000 square feet of lab space alongside administrative and residential buildings.