Opportunities exist for up to two postdoctoral scholars, available August 1, 2017, to investigate innate immunity in insects, its role in development, and in the transmission of infectious diseases. You will join an interdisciplinary group using biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, and cell-based assays in collaboration with experts at the organismal level. Your objective will be to elucidate novel molecular mechanisms of immunity, and new connections between invertebrate and human immune responses, that can be leveraged to predict and disrupt disease transmission. For more information, visit
http://baxterlab.yale.edu.
Applicants should have a Ph.D. in chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, or related discipline, record of peer-reviewed publication, and familiarity with standard laboratory techniques such as PCR/molecular biology, protein expression and purification, and analysis of proteins and nucleic acids by spectroscopy, electrophoresis, etc. The following skills are of specific interest:
Project 1: Structural analysis of complement-like proteins in the immune response of Anopheles gambiae to Plasmodium infection. Expertise in structural techniques such as x-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, small angle x-ray scattering, and/or mass-spectrometry techniques for quantitation. Experience in eukaryotic cell culture, especially baculovirus expression vector systems (BEVS).
Project 2: Functional analysis of Drosophila thioester-containing proteins in immunity and development. Expertise in cell-based assays such as flow cytometry, microscopy, RNAi knockdown and qPCR, Analysis of protein-protein interactions by proteomics/mass-spectrometry. Experience in eukaryotic cell culture, including genetic manipulation or antibody production.
Interested applicants please send (i) cover letter, (ii) curriculum vitae, and (iii) name and contact information for three references to Prof. Richard Baxter by email:
[email protected].
