Postdoctoral Fellowship

The laboratory of Dr. Hee Cheol Cho in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University and the Heart Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is seeking motivated and talented candidates for an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship position. The successful candidate will take advantage of cutting-edge bioengineering tools so as to understand the mechanisms of and develop treatments for heart rhythm-associated diseases. Throughout the fellowship period, career development strategies will be encouraged and implemented with the goal of promoting meritorious fellows toward independent faculty positions. Promotion opportunities will be sought externally as well as internally supported by resources provided by the Heart Regeneration Program of the Department of Pediatrics and the Children's Heart Center. The available projects are as follow.

Project 1. Lineage-specific patterning of human pluripotent stem cells. The objectives of this project are to understand the mechanisms of cardiac chamber-specific differentiation of human ES/iPS cells, and to develop generalizable methods to derive nodal/atrial/ventricular myocytes. The emphasis is on dissecting electrophysiological properties of the de novo cardiac myocytes in vitro and upon transplantation in vivo. Candidates are expected to have prior knowledge and experience in human ESC/iPSC biology and cardiac differentiation. The candidate will gain direct access to engage in translational projects toward cell-based therapies for heart rhythm-associated diseases.

Project 2. Somatic cell reprogramming toward bioengineered cardiac pacemaker organoids. The objectives of this project are to understand the cellular events that take place during nodal cell reprogramming, and to develop strategies to bioengineer cardiac pacemaker tissue constructs. The emphasis is on characterizing the electrophysiological properties of the cell/tissue constructs in vitro, in whole-heart and in vivo. Candidates are expected to have prior knowledge and experience in cardiac electrophysiology. The candidate will gain opportunities to advance this project to proof-of-concept studies in clinically-relevant models of cardiac arrhythmias in small and large animals.

Preferred Qualifications
A recent graduate of PhD or MD with no more than three years of postdoc research experience.

Submit application material including a cover letter, a CV and contact information for three referees to:

https://faculty-emory.icims.com/jobs/55482/job

Inquiries to:

Hee Cheol Cho, PhD / heecheol.cho@emory.edu / Urowsky-Sahr Scholar in Pediatric Bioengineering

Director, Heart Regeneration Program / Associate Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics and the Heart Center