Post-doctoral Scholar

Post-doctoral Scholar

Job Title
- Post-doctoral Scholar

Department Name
- Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center

Work Location
- Lexington, KY

Salary Range
- Commensurate with experience

Type of Position
- Student

Position Time Status
- Full-Time

Required Education
- PhD

Required Related Experience
- Experience in life science or related disciplines.

Physical Requirements - pushing, pulling, or lifting items up to 50 lbs.

Shift
- Primarily days. Evenings and weekends as needed based on ongoing research experiments.

Job Summary
- The Emfinger lab in the Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center explores factors that drive diabetes risk by altering insulin secretion and action, focusing on ways in which these factors interact. Projects use machine learning methods and omics data to nominate candidate drivers of islet responses, identify potential conditional dependencies between them, and validate them using wet-lab experiments in mice and human tissues.

Dr. Emfinger is looking to recruit Postdoctoral Scholars interested in islet biology and machine learning. The Postdoctoral scholar will have the opportunity to collect data, analyze large datasets, prepare manuscripts (as first or co-author), and present work  environment at UK is open and collaborative and draws from multiple disciplines in endocrinology, biostatistics, genetics, metabolism, and other areas with which there are opportunities to collaborate.

The Scholar will also be supported in their own grant applications (e.g. fellowships, pilot proposals). The Scholar is encouraged to develop their own projects related to the goals of the lab. Techniques of interest in these projects include adenoviral transfection of cells/tissues, generation of islet organoids, islet perifusion and islet imaging assays, in vivo assays of metabolism (e.g. glucose tolerance tests), and developing novel machine learning models (in Python and R).

Experience with mammalian cell and tissue culture, transfections, and in vivo phenotyping (particularly oral gavage in mouse models) is required. Please include a statement of research interests within the cover letter of no more than two pages.

Skills / Knowledge / Abilities
- Strong motivation for metabolic research. Some experience working with mice. Proficiency in English. Interest in learning new techniques.

Preferred Education/Experience
- Background in metabolic research preferred.

Final date to receive applications - 12/31/2026

Our University Community
- We value the well-being of each of our employees and are dedicated to creating a healthy place for everyone to work, learn and live. In the interest of maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our students, employees, patients and visitors, the University of Kentucky is a Tobacco & Drug Free campus. The University follows both the federal and state Constitutions as well as all applicable federal and state laws on nondiscrimination.

The University provides equal opportunities for qualified persons in all aspects of institutional operations and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnic origin, religion, creed, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information or social or economic status. Any candidate offered a position may be required to pass pre-employment screenings as mandated by University of Kentucky Human Resources.

These screenings may include a national background check and/or drug screen.