Postdoctoral Research Associate

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION to study the function of novel CAR T cell-based therapies for pediatric brain tumors

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

We are seeking a highly motivated and ambitious postdoctoral fellow to join the group of Dr. Giedre Krenciute. The lab is located in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy e Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. Our lab is working on highly translational immunology research, with the focus on brain tumors. We use genetically engineered human or murine T cells to design novel, long-lasting and safe therapeutic approaches for pediatric brain tumors.

Major projects include:

• Designing, generating, and optimizing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) specific for pediatric brain tumors.
• Enhancing CAR T cell effector function and longevity using different genetic manipulations
• Studying brain tumor microenvironment and its effect on CAR T cell function

For representative publications, please see:

Ibanez-Vega J, Teis R, Ocasio JK, Chockley P, Ansari A, Allo Anido A, Mehta S, Meehl M, Prinzing B, Ward M, Odde D, Baker S,
Krenciute G. RASA2 deletion rescues immune synapse dysfunction, enhancing CAR T cell efficacy against DMGs. J Immunother Cancer. 2026 Mar 30;14(3). doi: 10.1136/jitc
- Pub Med PMID: ;
Pub Med Central PMCID: PMC.

Meehl MM, Immadisetty K, Trivedi VD, Glowacki P, Prinzing B, Anido AA, Ibañez-Vega J, Leslie BJ, Babu MM,
Krenciute G. Computational structural optimization enhances IL13Rα2 - B7-H3 tandem CAR T cells to overcome antigen-heterogeneity-mediated tumor escape. Mol Ther. 2025 Aug 8:

S)00580-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.. Epub ahead of print. PMID: ; PMCID: PMC.

Mehta S, Ippagunta S, Varadharajan S, Kardian A, Laboe N, Dinh D, Jones AB, Meehl MM, Ibañez J, Emanus E, Dao T, Ward MB, Orisme W, Lange S, Langfitt D, Steinberg J, Chiang J, Vogel P, Sheppard H, Ellison DW, Mack SC,
Krenciute G. B7-H3 CAR T-cells are effective against ependymomas, but limited by tumor size and immune response. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Jun 30. doi: 10.1158/.CCR-24-3083. Epub ahead of print. PMID: .

Haydar D, Ibañez-Vega J, Crawford JC, Chou CH, Guy CS, Meehl M, Yi Z, Perry S, Laxton J, Cunningham T, Langfitt D, Vogel P, DeRenzo C, Gottschalk S, Roussel MF, Thomas PG,
Krenciute G. CAR T-cell design-dependent remodeling of the brain tumor-immune microenvironment modulates tumor-associated macrophages and anti-glioma activity. Cancer Res Commun. 2023 Nov 16. doi: 10.1158/.CRC-23-0424. PMID: .

Prinzing B, Fan Y, Anido AA, Yi Z, Nguyen P, Houke H, Bell M, Haydar D, Brown C, Boi S, Alli S, Crawford JC, Riberdy J, Park JE, Zhou S, Velasquez MP, DeRenzo C, Lazzarotto CR, Tsai SQ, Vogel P, Pruett-Miller SM, Langfitt D, Gottschalk S, Youngblood B,
Krenciute G. Deleting DNMT3A in CAR T cells prevents exhaustion and enhances antitumor activity. Sci Transl Med. 2021 Nov 17;13(620):eabh
0272. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abh
0272. Epub 2021 Nov 17. PMID: .

In addition to a Ph.D., the candidate should have expertise in the following techniques (all highly preferred but not required):

• Molecular biology techniques (DNA related work (propagation in bacteria, isolation, PCR), RNA related work (isolation, qPCR), WB, CRISPR)
• Cloning (ligation cloning, any iteration of Gibson Assembly (InFusion, NEBuilder, etc)) and plasmid design using Snap Gene (or equivalent software)
• Tissue culture (tumor and immune cells)
• Flow cytometry
• Transfection, transduction, and transformation.
• Immunology methods (cytokine detection by ELISAs and/or flow, immune cell isolation from animals, etc)
• Animal work

Training in brain tumor biology, immunology and/or CAR T cell biology is highly advantageous but not necessary.

Fluency in English is essential. Candidates should have the ability to work independently as well as in a collaborative research team and have a strong desire to make a major contribution to the field of CAR T cell biology. The fellow will benefit from the outstanding research facilities and the highly collaborative St. Jude community. In addition, the fellow will interact and work with the leaders in basic and translational immunology and brain tumor biology research within and outside the institution.

Interested applicants should send their CV, a cover letter describing research experience and interests, and names and email addresses of three references to: giedre.krenciute

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is an equal opportunity employer.

St. Jude is an Equal Opportunity Employer