Postdoctoral Fellow - Genetics

The Yun Laboratory in the Department of Genetics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is seeking a creative, independent, and highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our team and pursue research projects related to diet, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Our laboratory investigates how dietary exposures and nutritional states influence colorectal cancer development, progression, metastasis, and intestinal inflammation. We are especially interested in the mechanistic links among diet, tumor genetics, metabolism, the gut microbiome, inflammation, and the immune system. Current projects use mouse models, patient-derived organoids, human biospecimens, microbiome and metabolomics approaches, genomic analyses, and large-scale human datasets to define how dietary exposures shape intestinal disease biology.

Our lab is committed to pursuing rigorous, mechanistic, creative, and high-impact research that can lead to strong publications and meaningful advances in cancer biology, prevention, and treatment. Our previous work has been published in high-impact journals, including Science and Nature Metabolism. The postdoctoral fellow will be expected to work independently, develop creative research questions, lead research projects, design rigorous experiments, analyze and interpret data, apply computational and statistical skills when appropriate, and drive projects toward publication.

We are particularly interested in exceptional candidates who are driven, intellectually engaged, and committed to doing rigorous, high-impact science. This position is not intended for candidates whose primary goal is only to perform assigned experiments, even if they are technically capable. Rather, we are looking for a postdoctoral fellow who can think creatively and independently, develop clear research questions, lead existing funded projects in the laboratory, design rigorous experiments, analyze and interpret data, apply computational and statistical skills when appropriate, and contribute intellectually to the direction of the project.

The candidate should also have a strong work ethic and be collaborative, collegial, flexible, and willing to contribute to a supportive and productive laboratory environment.

* LEARNING OBJECTIVES
* The individual will learn not only experimental methods for studying the effects of diet on colon cancer development using mice, cell lines, and organoids, but more importantly how to execute and complete a research project in the most effective and efficient way. They will develop the ability to perform experiments and drive projects independently and productively.

Working closely with the PI and other lab members as a team, they will learn to write and submit manuscripts, write fellowship and grant applications, and publish high-profile papers. Toward the end of their postdoctoral training, they will be ready to become independent investigators and faculty members.

* ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
* Applicants must have a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. in a relevant field, a strong record of high-impact, first-author publications, and excellent written and verbal communication skills. Research experience in immunology, the tumor microenvironment, or cancer metabolism is preferred. Applicants should be strong at the bench, and on top of that, basic computational skills (e.g., R or Python) to independently analyze omics data such as RNA-seq, microbiome, and scRNA-seq are preferred.

* ADDITIONAL APPLICATION INFORMATION
* Applicants should submit a cover letter that clearly describes: (1) their prior research experience; (2) their current scientific interests and why they are interested in the Yun Laboratory; and (3) the specific research questions they would like to pursue, why these questions are important, and how they would approach them experimentally. The final project may evolve after joining the laboratory, but applicants should demonstrate their ability to think independently and formulate clear, creative research directions.

Interested and qualified candidates should apply through the MD Anderson website and may also contact Dr. Jihye Yun directly at jyun with a CV,…