Post Doctoral Associate-Aging Institute - Dr Gang Li's Lab

A Postdoctoral Associate position is available immediately in Dr. Gang Li's lab in the Aging Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. The main research interest in Dr. Li's lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the contribution of disease-associated genetic variants to age-related diseases such as cancers, Alzheimer's disease, and cardiovascular diseases. One of our current projects is to dissect the 58 kb core region on the CDDKN2A/B locus that is associated with atherosclerosis and its complications. The major focus is to reveal the mechanisms as well as the signaling pathways that activate cellular senescence and cell death. Of note, the accumulation of senescent cells with age is the most important contributor to aging and age-related diseases including multiple cardiovascular diseases. Our goal is to use human genetics (GWAS) as a guide to identify new drug targets and ultimately, we will apply our findings to develop allele-specific precision drugs for aging and age-related diseases. To accomplish this goal, we have developed a set of novel and highly efficient high throughput techniques (Li et al., Nature Genetics 2018; Zhao et al., Nature Communications, 2020; Wu et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 2021) to study disease-associated risk genes such as p16^INK4A (Jiang et al., Nature Aging, 2022, Wu et al., Aging Cell, 2022 manuscript accepted). The position could work on several projects that have very solid preliminary data, which will lead to high-impact publications in an efficient way. The candidate will have great opportunities to develop their unique professorship in both basic and translational studies by learning novel technologies as well as skills such as grant application and project management.

Interested candidates must be self-motivated and detail-oriented individuals with a commitment to research excellence. Candidates for postdoc positions require a PhD, MD, or MD/PhD degree with a strong background in molecular biology, genetics, and/or cell biology. Research experience in human and mouse genetics, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease, and functional genomics is preferred. Salary is based on NIH postdoc stipend levels, but is negotiable based on the candidate's experience.

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