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 Fully 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
Henderson Lab
The Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) performs basic and translational research to fight against major infectious diseases. DHVI is seeking Postdoctoral Associates to join the fight against the HIV-1 virus. The DHVI is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental institute dedicated to the study of host-pathogen interactions that can be translated into biologics and vaccines. DHVI is composed of a team of highly interactive investigators that have expertise in mucosal and systemic immunology, virology, molecular and structural biology, computational biology, and animal medicine.We are seeking a motivated individual with a background in both computational and experimental structural biology including computational protein design, molecular simulation and single particle cryo-electron microscopy or x-ray crystallography to join our team dedicated to the design of protective HIV-1 vaccines. The Postdoctoral Associate will work independently to develop and apply computational and experimental methods to areas that include the design of vaccine immunogens, optimization of antibody-antigen affinity, and enhancing our understanding of the antibody-antigen association process. The multi-disciplinary approach to vaccine development at DHVI will afford the Postdoctoral Associate exposure to many areas of vaccine research with a multitude of opportunities to apply both computational and experimental structural biology methods to efforts aimed at combating the HIV-1 pandemic. Under the guidance of the Principal Investigator, the candidate will be responsible for developing methodology, performing data analysis, designing and executing experiments, presenting the results at internal and external meetings, and drafting scientific publications. These studies will have a major impact on vaccine development that will be translated to first-in-humans clinical trials. The Postdoctoral Associate will perform some or all of the following activities:
- Computational protein design for development of immunogens for a protective HIV-1 vaccine.Molecular simulation of HIV-1 Envelope proteins to inform vaccine design.Computational design of antibodies to improve their ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 for use as antibody therapeutics.Molecular simulation-based methods to estimate binding free energy changes and association and dissociation kinetics in the interaction between antibodies and HIV-1 Envelope protein constructs.High-resolution structure determination via single particle cryo-electron microscopy of HIV-1 Envelope immunogen constructs in the absence and presence of antibodies.Design, develop, and implement computational programs to assist with the performance of the above activities.Present scientific results at meetings and publish results in peer-reviewed journals.Training in bioethics, laboratory management, and scientific writing.Maintain accurate laboratory documentation of experiments, including raw experimental data and laboratory notebooks.
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
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.
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
"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.
“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.”
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