Important Info
Dr. Frederick Dirbas ( dirbas@stanford.edu) and Anisha Abreu (aabreao@stanford.edu) and Mark Le (markqle@stanford.edu)
An institutionally funded post-doctoral position will be available in the laboratory of Dr. Frederick Dirbas in the Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology. The laboratory focuses on basic and translational research in murine models of breast cancer to study the molecular, cellular, and functional changes following FLASH radiotherapy. The lab’s goal is to move FLASH RT towards clinical use in humans by comparing the effects FLASH vs conventional radiotherapy on normal tissue in immunocompetent animal models as well as xenograft models of breast cancer. Dr. Dirbas works closely with Dr. Billy Loo in Stanford’s Department of Radiation Oncology, Dr. Kathleen Horst (radiation oncology), Dr. Ted Graves (radiobiology), Dr. Dan Delitto (surgical oncology, bioinformatics), with additional close collaborations with Dr. Aaron Newman (bioinformatics), Emma Lundberg (proteomics), and Lingyin Li (biochemistry)
The postdoctoral fellow will work in a collaborative team to perform FLASH irradiation experiments in mice and study changes in tissues by immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence imaging of tissue sections, among multiple other analytical tools.
Applicants with research experience in mouse research (tumor models and normal tissue physiology), small animal irradiation and/or imaging, cancer cell biology including cancer stem cells, radiobiology, and familiarity with bulk and single cell RNA sequencing, are particularly encouraged to apply.
- Required - PhD, MD/PhD degree in Cancer Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Genetics, Cancer Stem Cells, Immunology, or relevant discipline
- Required — animal and in vivo. Rodent handling, orthotopic mammary fat pad implantation with syngeneic and xenograft models using immunodeficient mice (experience establishing patient-derived xenografts), heterotopic tumor implantation, tumor measurement and longitudinal monitoring. Inhalational and injectable anesthesia, and animal positioning for irradiation. Survival surgery experience, an advantage for models of breast reconstruction and lymphedema. Necropsy and multi-tissue harvest under time pressure, with tissue divided for fixed, frozen and OCT-embedded fractions. Breeding colony management and PCR genotyping. Blood collection and serial sampling.
- Required — bench. Histology includes sectioning, H&E, Masson's trichrome and picrosirius red, with immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. Multiparameter flow cytometry, including tissue dissociation and panel design. RNA and protein extraction from fixed and frozen tissue with quality control. Quantitative PCR and Western blot. Mammalian cell culture, mycoplasma testing and cryopreservation.
- Required — general. Rigorous record-keeping and primary data documentation. Ability to generate grants including budget for institutional, non-profit, and federal, organizations including individual grants for career development and major lab grants. Advanced concept development, writing, and budget experience for grants and manuscripts. Capacity to work independently and support other post-doctoral fellows as well as multi-investigator collaboration. Animal irradiation studies will require work into the evening and early morning as well as weekends due to irradiation experiments timed around availability of LINACS during non-patient care hours.
- Desirable — computational. R or Python for analysis and figure generation. Bulk RNA-seq workflows such as DESeq2 or edgeR. Single-cell or spatial transcriptomic analysis using Seurat, Scanpy or Space Ranger. Quantitative image analysis in ImageJ/Fiji or QuPath. Familiarity with Singular G4X platform.
- Desirable — domain. Radiation biology or radiation oncology research. Tumor immunology, innate immune signaling, or fibrosis biology.
- Cover letter
- Current CV with publication list
- Contact information for three references