Skip to main content

This job has expired

POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATE

Employer
Duke University
Location
Duke Human Vaccine Institute - Admin

View more

Position Type
Postdoc
Employment Type
Full Time
Institution Type
Four-Year Institution

Job Details

This Position is Partially Grant Funded

School of Medicine:

Established in 1930, Duke University School of Medicine is the youngest of the nation’s top medical schools. Ranked tenth among its peers, the School takes pride in being an inclusive community of outstanding learners, investigators, clinicians, and staff where traditional barriers are low, interdisciplinary collaboration is embraced, and great ideas accelerate translation of fundamental scientific discoveries to improve humanhealth locally and around the globe.

Comprised of 2,400 faculty physicians and researchers, the Duke University School of Medicine along with the Duke University School of Nursing and Duke University Health System create Duke Health. Duke Health is a world-class health care network. Founded in 1998 to provide efficient, responsive care, the health system offers a full network of health services and encompasses Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Duke Primary Care, Private Diagnostic Clinic, Duke Home and Hospice, Duke Health and Wellness, and multiple affiliations.

POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATE OPPORTUNITY

Acharya Lab – Division of Structural Biology

The Acharya Lab in the Division of Structural Biology at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI), is recruiting for a Postdoctoral Associate. We study structures of viral glycoproteins, their interactions with host molecules and role in viral entry. Working at the interface of basic and translational research, we collaborate with multiple labs in DHVI and beyond to apply insights from structural biology to vaccine design. We have state-of-the-art facilities that include tissue culture labs, FPLCs, X-ray crystallography robots, a biophysics suite that includes a Biacore T200, Octet Red 384, ITC, DSC and a plate reader for absorbance and fluorescence assays, Leica EM GP2 and other equipment for cryo-EM grid preparation. We have regular access to the 22-ID beamline at the Argonne Photon Source for X-ray data collection, as well as to a Titan Krios microscope equipped with a Gatan K3 camera at Duke University for cryo-EM. This position will involve structural determination using high-resolution cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography of viral envelope and fusion proteins, and their complexes with host receptors and antibodies, biophysical and biochemical analyses to complement structural results, and collaborations with virology and immunology labs to understand the functional implications of the structural findings.

Some of our recent publications are listed below:

Gobeil SM, Janowska K, McDowell S, Mansouri K, Parks R, Stalls V, Kopp MF, Manne K, Saunders K, Edwards RJ, Haynes BF, Henderson RC, Acharya P. Effect of natural mutations of SARS-CoV-2 on spike structure, conformation, and antigenicity. Science 2021 Jun 24;eabi6226.

doi: 10.1126/science.abi6226.

Henderson R, Edwards RJ, Mansouri K, Janowska K, Stalls V, Gobeil SMC, Kopp M, Li D, Parks R, Hsu AL, Borgnia MJ, Haynes BF, Acharya P. Controlling the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein conformation. Nat Struct Mol Biol, 27(10):925-933, Oct 2020 doi: 10.1038/s41594-020-0479-4. Epub 2020 Jul 22. PMID: 32699321

Williams WB, Meyerhoff RR, Edwards RJ, Li H, Manne K, Nicely NI, Henderson R, Zhou Y, Janowska K, Mansouri K, Gobeil S, Evangelous T, Hora B, Berry M, Abuahmad AY, Sprenz J, Deyton M, Stalls V, Kopp M, Hsu AL, Borgnia MJ, Stewart-Jones G, Lee MS, Bronkema N, Moody MA, Wiehe K, Bradley T, Alam SM, Parks RJ, Foulger A, Oguin T, Sempowski GD, Bonsignori M, LaBranche CC, Montefiori DC, Seaman M, Santra S, Perfect J, Francica JR, Lynn GM, Aussedat B, Walkowicz WE, Laga R, Kelsoe G, Saunders KO, Fera D, Kwong PD, Seder RA, Bartesaghi A, Shaw GM, Acharya P, Haynes BF. (2021) Fab-dimerized glycan-reactive antibodies are a structural category of natural antibodies. Cell, 184, 2955.

At DHVI our postdoctoral associates work in concert with Duke faculty and staff in an invigorating research training environment. One of our primary scientific missions is to support and train early stage investigators to be the next generation of scientific leaders equipped to identify and implement solutions for improving human health worldwide. We are committed to providing an outstanding training environment and research experiences that will enhance your career and provide an avenue to incorporate your education, expertise, initiative and dedication to the success of the studies.

The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. degree, with a strong background in biochemistry and structural biology. Experience with basic molecular biology, protein expression, purification, and either X-ray crystallography or cryo-EM is required. The ideal candidate will be creative, motivated, and have the ability to work independently, as well as part of a team.

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.

Organization

Read our Diversity Profile History

Duke University was created in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke as a memorial to his father, Washington Duke. The Dukes, a Durham family that built a worldwide financial empire in the manufacture of tobacco products and developed electricity production in the Carolinas, long had been interested in Trinity College. Trinity traced its roots to 1838 in nearby Randolph County when local Methodist and Quaker communities opened Union Institute. The school, then named Trinity College, moved to Durham in 1892, where Benjamin Newton Duke served as a primary benefactor and link with the Duke family until his death in 1929. In December 1924, the provisions of indenture by Benjamin’s brother, James B. Duke, created the family philanthropic foundation, The Duke Endowment, which provided for the expansion of Trinity College into Duke University.Duke Campus

As a result of the Duke gift, Trinity underwent both physical and academic expansion. The original Durham campus became known as East Campus when it was rebuilt in stately Georgian architecture. West Campus, Gothic in style and dominated by the soaring 210-foot tower of Duke Chapel, opened in 1930. East Campus served as home of the Woman's College of Duke University until 1972, when the men's and women's undergraduate colleges merged. Both men and women undergraduates now enroll in either the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences or the Pratt School of Engineering. In 1995, East Campus became the home for all first-year students.

Duke maintains a historic affiliation with the United Methodist Church.

Home of the Blue Devils, Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.

Mission Statement

Duke Science"James B. Duke's founding Indenture of Duke University directed the members of the University to 'provide real leadership in the educational world' by choosing individuals of 'outstanding character, ability, and vision' to serve as its officers, trustees and faculty; by carefully selecting students of 'character, determination and application;' and by pursuing those areas of teaching and scholarship that would 'most help to develop our resources, increase our wisdom, and promote human happiness.'

“To these ends, the mission of Duke University is to provide a superior liberal education to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities; to prepare future members of the learned professions for lives of skilled and ethical service by providing excellent graduate and professional education; to advance the frontiers of knowledge and contribute boldly to the international community of scholarship; to promote an intellectual environment built on a commitment to free and open inquiry; to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health, through sophisticated medical research and thoughtful patient care; to provide wide ranging educational opportunities, on and beyond our campuses, for traditional students, active professionals and life-long learners using the power of information technologies; and to promote a deep appreciation for the range of human difference and potential, a sense of the obligations and rewards of citizenship, and a commitment to learning, freedom and truth.Duke Meeting

 “By pursuing these objectives with vision and integrity, Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the University; to contribute in diverse ways to the local community, the state, the nation and the world; and to attain and maintain a place of real leadership in all that we do.”

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalized job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert