Postdoctoral Research Associate - Functional and System Metabolism
Location: Memphis, TN | Department: Center for Leukemia Studies | Position Type: Full Time | Shift: Weekday Day | Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40
About the Lab
Postdoctoral positions are available in the lab of Dr. Jian Xu at the Department of Pathology and Center of Excellence for Leukemia Studies (CELS) at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The lab studies metabolic processes that control stem cell development, blood disorders, and childhood cancers using high-throughput metabolomics, epigenomics, single-cell multiomics, (epi)genome editing, and preclinical models.
The lab is equipped with cutting-edge metabolomics, genomics, molecular biology, and bioinformatics platforms, including:
- In-house LC-MS and GC-MS-based metabolomic platforms
- Illumina sequencer
- 10x Genomics single-cell technologies
- Flow cytometry
The team brings together enthusiastic scientists with diverse backgrounds in a multidisciplinary, collaborative setting. Since its establishment in 2014, the lab has published a series of impactful papers:
- Development of a CRISPR-based CAPTURE approach for in situ analysis of chromatin interactions (Cell 170:1028, 2017)
- Loss of EZH2 reprograms branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism to drive leukemic transformation (Cancer Discovery 9:1228, 2019)
- Epigenetic silencing of LINE-1 retrotransposons is a selective dependency of myeloid leukemia (Nature Genetics 53:672, 2021)
- Novel mechanisms driving therapy resistance to FDA-approved therapies in myeloid leukemia (Cancer Discovery 13:170, 2023)
- A glutamine metabolic switch essential for normal and pathological erythropoiesis (Science 386:eadh9215, 2024)
Research Projects
- Understand and target metabolic vulnerabilities in genetic blood disorders and therapy response
- Characterize metabolic dependencies and biomarkers in childhood cancers and therapy response
- Develop high-throughput multi-omic approaches for targeting metabolic liabilities of cancer stem cells
- Develop computational approaches for integrating metabolomics, transcriptomics, and genomics datasets across development and disease
Requirements
- Ph.D. and/or M.D. degree
- Strong background in metabolism research, biochemistry, molecular biology, hematology/oncology, or a related field
- Independence, flexibility, and creativity with a record of scientific productivity
Preferred Qualifications
- Previous experience in metabolomics
- Previous experience in computational biology
- Previous experience in hematology-oncology
Schedule
Weekday day shift, full-time, 40 hours per week.