Postdoctoral Fellow

Posted 15 days ago

marshall universityHuntington (AR)

Molecular and Cellular Biologists Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology)

SENIORITY

Lead

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About the role

Postdoctoral FellowThe Xu Lab in the Department of Biomedical Sciences is seeking a motivated and skilled Postdoctoral Fellow to join our team. The candidate will lead a research project focusing on molecular microbiology of infectious diseases. One focus of this role involves inhibitor design and validating these targets. The ideal candidate will possess extensive hands-on experience in microbial construct design, genetic transformation, recombinant protein expression, and targeting those proteins with biochemical inhibitors.

Key Responsibilities: Inhibitor Design: Apply computational tools (docking, molecular dynamics) or experimental methods to design and screen small-molecule, peptide, or fragment-based inhibitors against target proteins. Assay Development: Establish biochemical, biophysical, and cellular assays to measure inhibitor binding affinity and functional enzyme inhibition. Construct Cloning: Design and construct expression plasmids, genetic vectors, and CRISPR-based tools for bacterial/host systems. Strain Engineering: Engineer microbial strains and mammalian cells. Protein Expression: Purify target proteins using chromatographic methods. Characterization: Perform biochemical characterization, Western blotting, ELISA, and functional assays to validate protein activity.

Location: MUSOM - Marshall University School of Medicine

Salary Range: Salary is commensurate with experience and internal equity

Required Qualifications

Education: Ph.D. in Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, or a closely related field.

Experience: Demonstrated experience in inhibitor design, structural biology, or biochemical assay development for target evaluation. Proven expertise in molecular cloning techniques (Gibson assembly, restriction-based, PCR). Hands-on experience with bacterial transformation and genetic manipulation. Strong background in recombinant protein expression and purification. Evidence of productivity: At least one first-author publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Experience using structural biology or computational chemistry software (e.g., PyMOL, Schrödinger, AutoDock, Rosetta). Experience with biophysical characterization techniques (e.g., SPR, ITC, MST). Knowledge of bioinformatics tools for gene/protein analysis.

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