Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Guolan Lu

The Lu Lab at Stanford University is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Scholar to help define a new frontier at the interface of spatial biology and therapeutics. The scholar will lead spatial-biology driven projects to identify novel spatial biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and rational strategies for next-generation therapeutics. The Lu Lab develops 2D/3D spatialtemporal omics, spatial pharmacology, and computational/AI approaches to map, model, and reprogram how cells, extracellular matrix, and therapies are spatially organized in human tissues. Our goal is to translate spatial insights into strategies for disease interception and curative therapy. Potential project directions include:

• Identifying spatial determinants of therapeutic delivery and response in solid tumors, including antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapies, targeted therapies, and engineered cell therapies.

• Discovering tumor-stromal, tumor-immune, and tumor-ECM programs that drive therapeutic resistance, cancer progression, and metastasis.

• Developing and applying computational/AI-enabled spatial omics approaches to identify new therapeutic targets, biomarkers, and rational combination strategies.

We are deeply committed to your mentorship and long-term success. As a postdoctoral scholar in our lab, you will gain training in 2D/3D spatial multi-omics, single-cell spatial pharmacology, AI-enabled tissue analysis, and translational cancer biology, with access to large, high-quality, in-house spatial datasets. The Lu Lab maintains active collaborations across Stanford Medicine, engineering, pathology, oncology, and surgery. Postdocs in the Lu Lab are supported in developing an independent scientific identity, leading first-author manuscripts, pursuing fellowship and grant applications, presenting at major conferences, mentoring junior researchers, and building a collaborative network across academia, medicine, biotech, pharma, and entrepreneurship.

The Lu Lab is located at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, which offers world-class resources for postdoctoral training and interdisciplinary research. The lab values rigorous science, creativity, collaboration, and welcomes scientists from all backgrounds. Selected publications are listed below. More information can be found at: https://med.stanford.edu/guolanlulab.html

• Lu G*, Hickey JW, Haist M, Qin X, Zhao E, Naveed A, Forgo E, Baertsch MA, Mani L, Rovira-Clave X, Finegersh A, Goltsev Y, Caraccio C, van den Berg NS, Hom M, Colburg DR, Martin BA, Kong CS, Lui NS, Fisher GA, Colevas AD, West RB, Thurber GM, Poultsides GA, Nolan GP*, Rosenthal EL*. “Single-cell spatial pharmacobiology identifies conserved stromal barriers to therapeutic antibody delivery in human solid tumors.” Nature Biotechnology, 2026 (*co-corresponding; In Press)

• Lu G, Nishio N, van den Berg NS, Martin BA, Fakurnejad S, van Keulen S, Colevas AD, Thurber GM, Rosenthal EL. “Co-administered antibody improves penetration of antibody-dye conjugate into human cancers with implications for antibody-drug conjugates.” Nat Commun. 2020 Nov;11(1):5667. 

•  Lu G, van den Berg NS, Martin BA, Nishio N, Hart ZP, van Keulen S, Fakurnejad S, Chirita SU, Raymundo RC, Yi G, Zhou Q, Fisher GA, Rosenthal EL, Poultsides GA. “Tumour-specific fluorescence-guided surgery for pancreatic cancer using panitumumab-IRDye800CW: a phase 1 single-centre, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation study.” Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020 Aug; 5(8):753-764.