Postdoctoral Research Associate

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated and ambitious postdoctoral fellow to join the group of Dr. Giedre Krenciute in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. The lab focuses on highly translational immunology research, specifically designing novel, long-lasting, and safe CAR T cell-based therapeutic approaches for pediatric brain tumors.

Major projects include:

• Designing, generating, and optimizing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) specific for pediatric brain tumors.
• Enhancing CAR T cell effector function and longevity using different genetic manipulations.
• Studying the brain tumor microenvironment and its effect on CAR T cell function.

Research environment

The fellow will benefit from outstanding research facilities and a highly collaborative community at St. Jude. They will interact and work with leaders in basic and translational immunology and brain tumor biology research both within and outside the institution.

Requirements

In addition to a Ph.D., the candidate should have expertise in the following techniques (all highly preferred but not required):

• Molecular biology techniques (DNA-related work such as propagation in bacteria, isolation, PCR; RNA-related work such as isolation, qPCR; Western blot; CRISPR).
• Cloning (ligation cloning, Gibson Assembly variants like InFusion or NEBuilder) and plasmid design using SnapGene or equivalent software.
• Tissue culture (tumor and immune cells).
• Flow cytometry.
• Transfection, transduction, and transformation.
• Immunology methods (cytokine detection by ELISAs and/or flow, immune cell isolation from animals, etc.).
• Animal work.

Training in brain tumor biology, immunology, and/or CAR T cell biology is highly advantageous but not necessary. Fluency in English is essential.

Qualifications

Candidates should have the ability to work independently as well as in a collaborative research team and demonstrate a strong desire to make a major contribution to the field of CAR T cell biology.

Publications

For representative publications, please see:

• Ibanez-Vega J, et al. RASA2 deletion rescues immune synapse dysfunction, enhancing CAR T cell efficacy against DMGs. J Immunother Cancer. 2026 Mar 30;14(3). doi: 10.1136/jitc-2025-013134.
• Meehl MM, et al. Computational structural optimization enhances IL13Rα2 - B7-H3 tandem CAR T cells to overcome antigen-heterogeneity-mediated tumor escape. Mol Ther. 2025 Aug 8. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2025.07.044.
• Mehta S, et al. B7-H3 CAR T-cells are effective against ependymomas, but limited by tumor size and immune response. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Jun 30. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-3083.
• Haydar D, et al. CAR T-cell design-dependent remodeling of the brain tumor-immune microenvironment modulates tumor-associated macrophages and anti-glioma activity. Cancer Res Commun. 2023 Nov 16. doi: 10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-23-0424.
• Prinzing B, et al. Deleting DNMT3A in CAR T cells prevents exhaustion and enhances antitumor activity. Sci Transl Med. 2021 Nov 17;13(620). doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abh0272.