Assistant Project Scientist Positions in Pulmonary - Kulkarni Lab 2026-2027

The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has openings for full-time Assistant Project Scientists.

The positions are intended for collaborative research working on lung injury, using a combination of in vitro systems, mouse models and human biospecimens. The study will initially concentrate on how complement proteins modulate the cellular response to injury. The candidates' work will focus on investigating immune responses at mucosal surfaces such as the lung and the gut using techniques such spectral flow cytometry, proteomic assays, confocal microscopy, and in vivo imaging in conditional knockout mouse models;

performing unbiased screens (such as CRISPR and high-throughput compound screens) to identify targets for modulating complement activity; in vitro studies such as site-directed mutagenesis and immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry to identify binding partners for proteins and how these affect cellular responses to stress; and developing new ex vivo models from human lung specimens for investigating the pathogenesis of lung injury and repair with the goal of applying these techniques towards drug discovery.

The candidates must also be able to analyze and interpret said data and use these to generate new ideas and hypotheses to move the project/field forward. Experience in analyzing unbiased datasets (for example, transcriptomic or proteomic data) and/or a background in structural biology is looked upon favorably.

The candidates will work in the Kulkarni Lab and serve as a lead for basic-translational lung injury project(s). The positions involve in-person work at the Kulkarni Lab situated in the Center for Health Sciences building  applicants will meet regularly with their PI, Dr. Kulkarni and other members of the lung injury working group. Responsibilities include supporting the PI in the design and execution of funded projects by leading investigations in animal models of injury;

developing new ex vivo models using mammalian lung tissue (including humans); incorporating new techniques into the workflow of the lab (e.g. multispectral flow cytometry, high throughput screening using cellular imaging, in vivo imaging in animals), tissue analysis by biochemical, proteomic, transcriptomic, metabolic and immunohistological approaches. The candidates will be responsible for identifying the best ways to execute the proposed questions being studied in the lab (along with the PI), identifying appropriate reagents to develop new techniques and assays and implementing and refining them to answer key questions, and perform logical series of experiments to develop understanding of the mechanism of action of intracellular and locally acting complement proteins, among other components of the host response.

They will be responsible for co-mentoring other trainees in the lab, as well as assisting junior postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate student researchers. Additional responsibilities include maintenance of laboratory logs and protocols to be compliant with UCLA protocols, preparing manuscripts for publication in scientific journals, and assisting the PI with the preparation of grant proposals.

Required qualifications include a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences or a related field and a minimum of 5 years experience in biomedical research with a focus on a combination of immunology, plus molecular biology, protein chemistry, structural biology, pharmacology, in vivo work in mouse models of injury, and/or working with primary cell culture systems (e.g., organoids, coculture systems).

Required skills include experience in immunology and at least 2 years of specific experience working independently with experimental animals and primary cellular culture systems; experience in independently designing panels for multiparameter flow cytometry, acquiring and analyzing the data; experience in recombinant DNA technology, PCR, cell culture techniques, basic biochemistry, immunohistochemistry/immunofluorescence and animal models of disease; ability to handle several projects simultaneously;

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