Research Associate , Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Galveston

Research Associate I

The Zhao Research Group at UTMB is seeking one highly motivated Research Associate to join our growing interdisciplinary research team. Supported by the Welch Foundation and other research programs, our laboratory develops physics-informed AI methods for understanding biological systems, with applications ranging from molecular biophysics and protein interactions to multi-omics integration, disease modeling, and therapeutic discovery.

Our research sits at the intersection of Biophysics × AI × Computational Biology. We combine structural biology, graph machine learning, protein language models, statistical physics, and systems biology to develop computational methods that address fundamental biological questions and accelerate drug discovery.

Research Areas

• AI and graph neural networks for protein-protein interaction prediction.
• Physics-informed machine learning for protein binding affinity prediction.
• Multi-scale modeling integrating molecular structures, protein interaction networks, and single-cell multi-omics.
• Large language models and foundation models for biological systems.
• AI-assisted therapeutic target discovery and disease network analysis.

What We Offer The Zhao Research Group provides a collaborative and intellectually stimulating environment with opportunities to work on cutting-edge computational biology research. Team members will contribute to method development, software engineering, scientific publications, conference presentations, and collaborative projects with investigators at UTMB and other leading institutions.

Outstanding Research Associates interested in pursuing graduate training will receive strong mentorship and opportunities for scientific and professional development.

Application

• Curriculum vitae
• Brief statement describing your research interests and career goals
• Contact information for 2–3 references
• (Optional) Git Hub profile or representative code repository

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the positions are filled.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY:

UTMB Health strives to provide equal opportunity employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other basis protected by institutional policy or by federal, state or local laws unless such distinction is required by law. As a Federal Contractor, UTMB Health takes affirmative action to hire and advance protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.