Postdoctoral Fellow - Jianjun Gao Lab

A postdoctoral position in immune monitoring studies of lymph node metastasis and bone metastases progression and response to therapy is available in the laboratory of Jianjun Gao, MD, PhD, in the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology of the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. We are looking for highly self-motivated candidates with a recent PhD or MD degree to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of tumor immune escape and progression in lymph nodes and metastatic sites, as well as therapy resistance to targeted therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

The successful candidate must be able to design novel projects, create a hypothesis-driven experiment, maintain excellent descriptions of experiments performed, standardize and validate new methods and be able to interpret results. Computer skills such as entering data obtained from experiments into graphic and statistics programs as well as the generation of figures after image analysis are essentials. The employee should provide scientific expertise and organizational skills in getting involved in various research projects involving human subject research. The candidate will be responsible for coordinating procedures with collaborators. Other skills include performing technical laboratory duties in accordance with general and/or specific plans. Read, write and edit manuscripts and reports, as well as help with grant writing.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Learn lab skills for tissue collection, single-cell processing, and animal models for tumor microenvironment analysis.

Learn the basics of clinical and pathological therapy response and resistance in primary, nodal, and bone metastases from adrenal, renal, and urothelial carcinoma.

Learn the basics of immune monitoring studies in tissue and peripheral blood.

Become proficient in the intersection of tumor immune microenvironment, tumor metabolism, tumor microbiome, disease progression, and treatment response in patients with nodal disease.

Learn metastatic and primary tumor tissue processing and clinical annotation in patients with locally advanced and metastatic disease.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
MD or PhD degree

ADDITIONAL APPLICATION INFORMATION
To accomplish the learning objective, the candidate will be matched with GU oncology clinical faculty (Dr. Matthew Campbell and Dr. Omar Alhalabi) as well as translational faculty (Dr. Jianjun Gao). For more information, please refer to our recent publications (Campbell, Nature Comms, 2021; Alhalabi, Nature Comms, 2022; Gao, Nature Med 2020, Gao, Nature Med 2017, Gao, Cell 2016).