Postdoctoral Fellowship

Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at UCLA

We are seeking applications from qualified candidates for a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. John Belperio, a NIH-funded laboratory within the UCLA Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. 

We are looking for an MD or Ph.D. with:

1. Biostatistical background to work on bulk RNAseq, ssRNAseq, citi seq, TCR, methylomics, microbiome, snRNAseq, proteomics to perform analyses via vertical platforms for predicting lung transplant allograft injuries and chronic rejection.
2. Immunology background to work with mice models and human samples for the discovery of pathways that lead to fibrosis, emphysema, or granulomas.

Our research program focuses on:

1. Lung Transplant: examples A) Goal of inducing murine tolerance via hematopoietic mixed chimerism without radiation in the heterotopic tracheal transplant model of murine obliterative bronchiolitis and or the orthotopic lung transplant model. This would be work dealing with naive and allo-sensitized mice. B) Pathways of acute rejection via endothelial and epithelia cell rejection. C) Pathways of chronic rejection/fibrosis.
2. Pulmonary Fibrosis: examples A) Discovering novel pathways using explanted lung tissues. B) Performing proof of concept studies using the murine bleomycin model of lung fibrosis
3. COPD: examples A) Discovering novel pathways using explanted lung tissues. B) Performing proof of concept studies using the porcine elastase model of emphysema.
4. Sarcoidosis: example Discovering novel pathways using explanted lung tissues. 2) Inducing non-necrotizing lung granuloma in mice

Work will include using explanted human lung, lymph node tissue, bronchioalveolar lavage cells and fluid, and plasma/sera/PBMCs for ssRNAseq, proteomics, microbiome, flow cytometry, transcriptomics and methyomics. 

Similar studies will be performed with transgenic mice with the addition of adoptive transfer experiments and recall assays.

Typical techniques used - immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, multiplex immunofluorescences, flow cytometry, Luminex multiplexing protein concentrations, snRNAseq and ssRNAseq. We also perform adoptive transfer studies and recall response assays. R-programing is preferred. The position will involve conducting experiments in our immunology and cell/molecular biology in the lab. Experience with conditional knockout mouse models, primary epithelial cell lines, flow cytometry, ELISA, protein and DNA-based molecular biology, biochemistry, cell/tissue culture, fluorescence and confocal microscopy, and DNA/RNA sequencing, ssRNAseq, flow cytometry is preferred.

Eligible candidates must have a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences or an MD. The projects involve both in vitro and in vivo experimentation at the intersection of immunology, cell biology, and bioinformatics. Experience with standard cellular biology techniques and working with murine in vivo models is preferred but not required. Experience in bioinformatics is encouraged but is not mandatory.

Qualifications: This is an NIH Training Postdoctoral Training Fellowship and candidates must have a Ph.D., M.D. or equivalent and US citizenship or permanent residency.