Research Scientist

Research Project

We are looking for highly motivated scientists with great communication skills and collaborative spirit and love for science. The projects will mainly focus on cancer genetics and aneuploidy as described below.

The maintenance of a normal complement of the genome is a requirement for the success of multicellular organisms. Aneuploidy refers to the presence of an abnormal (lower or higher than euploid) number of chromosomes or chromosome arms (segmental aneuploidy). Although detrimental at the organismal level, aneuploidy is extremely frequent (~90%) in human tumors (Beroukhim et al., Nature 2010). We recently conducted a combined analysis of point mutation and copy number data in primary human tumor samples and demonstrated that the distribution and potency of cancer driver genes on each chromosome or chromosome arm can predict the frequency of whole chromosome or chromosome arm aneuploidy across cancers (Davoli et al. Cell, 2013; Sack, Davoli et al., Cell 2018). This suggests that the recurrent patterns of aneuploidy in cancer act as driver events during tumorigenesis. Furthermore, through an analysis of genomics and transcriptomic data from primary human tumors we recently identified a negative association between the level of cancer aneuploidy and the extent of tumor immune infiltrate, especially of cytotoxic T cells (Davoli et al. Science, 2017; William et al., PNAS 2021). Our ongoing research interest is to determine whether and how cancer aneuploidy regulates different aspects of cancer development utilizing a combination of experimental and computational approaches.

https://www.davolilab.com/

What we offer

Postdoctoral and staff scientist positions are available for a wet-lab project, a dry-lab project or a combination of both. Applicants with a background in genetics/molecular biology and/or bioinformatics are encouraged to apply. The Postdoctoral Researcher or Staff Scientist will have the opportunity to receive training on the use of state-of-the-art cancer genetics approaches and genomics analyses of patients’ datasets. The projects may require working with mice, including mouse models of human tumors, which will enable testing hypotheses that result from in vitro experiments. Starting date: anytime after October 1st 2021.

Qualifications

• PhD in molecular biology, genetics or bioinformatics • Strong research background in cell biology, cancer biology or genome instability • Very good publication record • Great interest and excitement for systems genetics and cancer.

About the new Institute for Systems Genetics @ NYU School of Medicine

The Institute for Systems Genetics (ISG) at NYU School of Medicine was established in January 2014 by Jef Boeke, PhD, with the mission of performing innovative science in the fields of systems biology and genetics/genomics. At the ISG, we work with a diverse group of human- and model-organism geneticists, technology developers in “omics,” computational biologists, and scientists using an engineering approach to biology. We work closely with genomics, proteomics and we partner with academic, research, and industry organizations, including the New York Genome Center in Manhattan.

Contact Dr. Teresa Davoli; Teresa.Davoli@nyumc.org