Postdoctoral Associate

About the role

The Be BRIDGE Lab in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Duke University is seeking a Postdoctoral Associate to join a translational breast cancer research program. The lab focuses on mechanisms of tumor progression, therapeutic resistance, and tumor-immune interactions.

Responsibilities

• Lead experimental projects using breast cancer models and patient-centered translational approaches to define mechanisms that regulate treatment response, immune evasion, and disease progression.
• Contribute to manuscripts and grants.
• Work within a collaborative multidisciplinary environment.

Requirements

• A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Immunology, Genetics/Genomics, or a closely related scientific field is required.
• Experience in breast cancer biology, therapeutic resistance, tumor immunology, immune evasion, or translational oncology.
• Experience with flow cytometry, immune co-culture assays, drug-response assays, engineered cell models, organoids, patient-derived models, or animal models.
• Familiarity with antigen presentation, HLA expression, interferon-response signaling, HER2, or tumor-intrinsic immune evasion.
• Experience with epigenetics, chromatin biology, transcriptomics, DNA methylation, ATAC-seq, RNA-seq, or other molecular profiling platforms.
• Experience with data analysis software such as GraphPad Prism, R, Python, or similar platforms.

Qualifications

• Scientific curiosity, proactive, organized, and motivated to build an independent research trajectory in translational breast cancer biology.
• Comfortable troubleshooting experiments, interpreting unexpected results critically, working across disciplines, and helping move projects from experimental design to publication.

Skills

• Independent research experience during doctoral studies.
• Strong publication record with at least one first-author publication or a manuscript submitted/in preparation in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Hands-on experience with molecular biology, cell biology, cancer biology, immunology, pharmacology, or related experimental approaches.
• Experience with mammalian cell culture and functional assays relevant to cancer biology or therapeutic response.

Benefits

Duke offers a competitive benefits package, including health insurance plans, generous paid time off, retirement programs with employer contributions, tuition assistance for employees and their children, and more.

Pay

Salary is commensurate with experience.

Schedule

The position is full-time, and the work is performed on-site or at a designated assignment location.