Research Scientist

About the role

The BRIDGE Lab (Breast Cancer Research in Genomics and Epigenomics) in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Duke University is seeking a highly motivated Research Scientist to lead a translational breast cancer research program. The position involves developing and leading projects, supervising trainees, contributing to grant applications and manuscripts, and working closely with the Principal Investigator.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead projects focused on breast cancer progression, therapeutic resistance, immune evasion, and treatment response.
• Work closely with the Principal Investigator to define scientific priorities, develop project concepts, and translate clinical questions into testable research hypotheses.
• Supervise and coordinate the work of postdoctoral fellows, students, research staff, and collaborators across experimental, computational, and clinical research activities.
• Contribute to the preparation of grant applications, progress reports, manuscripts, abstracts, presentations, and scientific reports.
• Design and oversee studies integrating patient-derived clinical data with genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, immunologic, pathologic, and functional datasets.
• Develop and implement biomarker strategies for patient stratification, treatment response prediction, and mechanistic interpretation.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary collaborations with clinicians, pathologists, immunologists, computational biologists, statisticians, and external collaborators.
• Analyze, interpret, and synthesize complex molecular and clinical datasets to generate biologically grounded and clinically relevant conclusions.
• Provide scientific oversight for experimental studies using breast cancer models, including engineered cell systems, therapeutic perturbation studies, immune co-culture assays, patient-derived models, or other translational platforms.
• Ensure rigorous experimental design, appropriate controls, statistical analysis, reproducibility, and high-quality data interpretation across projects.
• Mentor trainees in experimental design, data analysis, scientific writing, grant preparation, and presentation of research findings.
• Help develop new research directions aligned with the laboratory’s mission and emerging funding opportunities.
• Present research findings at institutional, national, and international meetings.

Qualifications

• 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.
• Postdoctoral research experience in cancer biology, translational oncology, genomics, epigenomics, tumor immunology, therapeutic resistance, biomarker development, or a related area is preferred.
• Demonstrated record of scientific productivity, including first-author and corresponding-author publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• Experience developing research questions, designing studies, interpreting complex data, and preparing manuscripts.
• Experience contributing to grant applications, scientific reports, abstracts, or other research documents.
• Demonstrated track record of securing competitive research funding, with at least one funded grants, fellowships, career development awards, foundation awards, institutional pilot awards, or equivalent mechanisms.
• Ability to work independently while coordinating collaborative, multidisciplinary projects.
• Experience mentoring or supervising junior scientists, postdoctoral fellows, students, or research staff is preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in breast cancer biology, especially triple-negative breast cancer, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, HER2-associated biology, therapeutic resistance, or tumor-immune interactions.
• Experience with genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, single-cell analysis, or biomarker development.
• Experience analyzing or coordinating studies involving human cohorts, clinical annotation, treatment response, survival outcomes, or patient-derived molecular datasets.
• Experience with statistical modeling, R, Python, bioinformatics workflows, or collaboration with computational teams.
• Experience with NIH, DOD, foundation, or institutional grant mechanisms.
• Interest in developing an independent research trajectory within a translational breast cancer research environment.

Other Requirements

• This position is onsite.
• The work is performed on-site or at a designated assignment location.

Application Materials

• Submit a CV, a brief cover letter describing research interests and career goals, and contact information for three references.

Benefits

• 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.
• Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Essential Physical Job Functions

• Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.