Postdoctoral position studying cancer biology and therapeutics at Stanford Full-time

The Sheltzer Lab at Stanford University is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to study cancer vulnerabilities and small-molecule therapeutics. Multiple projects are available, broadly focused on understanding how genetic alterations create selective dependencies and how drugs can be used to target them.

The Sheltzer Lab leverages approaches from functional genomics, chemical biology, AI, and pharmacogenomics to uncover how cancer cells respond to small-molecule therapies. Potential research directions include identifying biomarkers of sensitivity and resistance to anti-cancer compounds, defining mechanisms-of-action for cytotoxic small molecules, discovering genotype-specific cancer dependencies, and characterizing vulnerabilities associated with aneuploidy, genomic instability, and drug-resistant tumor states. The postdoctoral researcher will have the opportunity to shape a project based on their interests while building on ongoing work in the lab.

The successful candidate will gain expertise in CRISPR screening, drug sensitivity profiling, target deconvolution, and the computational analysis of large-scale pharmacogenomic datasets. The lab maintains active collaborations with medicinal chemists, structural biologists, and clinical oncologists at Stanford and elsewhere, providing opportunities to work across disciplines and engage in translational research. Postdocs in the lab are supported in pursuing independent ideas, mentoring junior researchers, and preparing for diverse careers in academia and industry.

The Sheltzer Lab is located at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, which provides exceptional resources and support for postdoctoral training. The Sheltzer Lab is a highly-collaborative environment that values rigorous research and that welcomes scientists from all backgrounds. More information on research in the lab can be found on our website and in the following publications:

• Lee, Long, K., Bhattacharjee, D., Newman-Stonebraker, S.H., Suhr, S., Mercado, B.Q., Tighe, A., Romero, L., Thompson, S.L., Sausville, E.L., John, K.M., Julian, L., Mishra, S., Klingbeil, O., Gupta, P., Bhatt, U., Gao, A.C., Ricardo, S., Vakoc, C.R., Bornhauser, B.C., Corsello, S.M., Taylor, S.S., Holland, P.L., Sheltzer, J.M. (2026). A clinical-stage oncology compound selectively targets drug-resistant cancers. bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2025.11.26.690878.
• Julian, L.A., Crozier, L., Lukow, D., Mishra, S., Swamy, A., Hagenson, R.A., Sennhenn, P., Sausville, E.L., Mendelson, B., Chuaqui, C., Qiao, L., Vasudevan, A., Lin, K.T., Bhatia, S., Bertomeu, T., Chatr-aryamontri, A., Zhang, L., Rees, M.G., Ronan, M.M., Roth, J.A., Nottoli, T., Bai, S., Lakshmipathi, J., Muthusamy, V., Van Vranken, J.G., Gygi, S.P., Thompson, S.L., Smith, J.C., Anderson, K., Shah, S., Bindra, R.S., Akerman, M., Spector, D.L., Krainer, A.R., Sheltzer, J.M. (2025). On-target toxicity limits the efficacy of CDK11 inhibition against cancers with 1p36 deletions. bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2025.08.03.668359.
• Girish, V., Lakhani, A.A., Thompson, S.L., Scaduto, C.M., Brown, L.M., Hagenson, R.A., Sausville, E.L., Mendelson, B.E., Kandikuppa, P.K., Lukow, D.A., Yuan, M.L., Stevens, E.C., Lee, S.N., Schukken, K.M., Akalu, S.M., Vasudevan, A., Zou, C., Salovska, B., Li, W., Smith, J.C., Taylor, A.M., Martienssen, R.A., Liu, Y., Sun, R., Sheltzer, J.M. (2023). Oncogene-like addiction to aneuploidy in human cancers. Science. doi.org/10.1126/science.adg4521.

Tagged as: Life Sciences