Postdoctoral Fellows and Research Scientist : Boston, MA, United States

Multiple postdoctoral fellow positions and a research scientist position are available in Dr. Min Dong’s lab at Harvard Medical School. Our laboratory has a broad interest in microbial toxins, bacterial infections, host-microbe interactions, and membrane trafficking. We are also utilizing toxins as tools to study fundamental cell biology questions on membrane trafficking and cytoskeleton remodeling in neurons. Along these lines of basic research, we are keen in developing microbial toxin-inspired novel protein therapeutics for treating cancer, pain, and other neurological disorders. We have a multi-disciplinary team crossing microbiology, protein engineering, cell biology, and neuroscience fields. Recent achievements include identification of receptors for C. difficile toxin via genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen (Nature, 2016, 538:350, Science, 2018, 360:664), identification of novel botulinum neurotoxins (Nature Communications, 2017, 8:14130; Cell Host and Microbe, 2018, 23:169), and protein engineering of botulinum neurotoxins (Nature Communications, 2017, 8:53). Please see lab website for details: http://donglab.hms.harvard.edu.

Potential projects include: 
(1) Mechanism of bacterial toxins and effectors: we are studying botulinum neurotoxins, tetanus neurotoxin, Shiga toxin, Clostridium difficile toxins, and many bacterial effectors using latest experimental approaches.

(2) Host-microbe interactions: enteric pathogens (e.g., C. difficile infections) and microbiome; urinary tract infections and urinary microbiome.

(3) Developing novel therapeutic toxins: apply modern protein engineering methods to develop novel therapeutic toxins for treating chronic pain and cancer. These positions will have many opportunities to work closely with our industry partners.

(4) Cell biology of neurons / electrophysiology: the candidate will apply imaging and electrophysiological approaches to characterize a few newly generated knock-out/knock-in mouse lines, focusing on (1) synaptic vesicle exocytosis/recycling; (2) cytoskeleton regulation by ROCO kinases; (3) endosomal sorting and trafficking in cells.

Interested candidates please forward your curriculum vitae and names of three references to Dr. Min Dong by email: donglab@childrens.harvard.edu