Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Research Associate Full-time
Seeking 2-4 Postdoctoral Fellows for immediate hire into competitive open positions within the collaborative laboratories of Julie Ostrander, Laura Mauro, and Carol Lange at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota): We are seeking highly motivated individuals driven to become future scientists and leaders in the field of hormone action and signal transduction in breast and ovarian cancer. Training grant (NIH T32) positions are also available.
Our collaborative research team is focused on the role of steroid hormone receptors (SRs) and their key co-activators (FOXO1, SRC-3, PELP1) in breast and ovarian cancers. A major focus of our laboratories is defining novel SR actions within the cancer context. Specifically, the role of post-translational modifications (PTMs) to SRs and their binding partners in response to stress-activated protein kinases and other oncogenic signaling pathways frequently elevated and activated in hormone-driven cancers. Our overarching research goal is to better understand how SR+ breast cancers and other hormone-influenced cancers of reproductive tissues progress to advanced stages that escape endocrine (i.e. SR-blocking) or other molecular targeted therapies that primarily target proliferating cells. Our collaborative team has routinely developed new reagents and employed classical biochemistry and molecular biology techniques to study SR and SR co-activator actions (and SR crosstalk with signaling pathways and “sister” SRs) including novel mechanisms of gene regulation that impact breast tumor development and progression, altered signaling and metabolism, cancer stem cell biology, and endocrine therapy resistance. More recently, in collaboration with Dr. Laura Mauro, we have also focused on the development of early SR+ fallopian tube lesions that give rise to high grade serous ovarian cancer. We typically complement mechanistic molecular in vitro studies focused on signaling inputs to SR-dependent regulation of transcription with the use of genetically modified mice, mouse mammary intraductal injection (MIND), and/or human patient derived xenograft (PDX) models maintained in mice as well as patient derived organoids (PDO).
Required: Ph.D. in biomedical sciences as well as experience working on signaling proteins, including transcription factors, NRs, and other closely related molecules and associated signaling pathways. Expertise in the following techniques is preferred: flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, performance and analysis of cell-based assays, cell culture, western blotting, and in vitro biological assays. Knowledge of state-of-the-art methods and applications of basic biostatistics, genomics/genetics, such as Nextgen methods for analyses of epigenetics including DNA and RNA sample preparation and data interpretation is preferred. The applicant should have outstanding (oral) presentation and English writing skills.