Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Scientist Positions

Two postdoctoral fellow positions and a technician/research scientist position are available in Dr. Min Dong’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Our laboratory has a broad interest in microbial toxins, bacterial pathogenesis, microbial interactions with human/animal/insects, microbiome, and engineering therapeutic proteins. Along these lines of basic research, we are keen in developing microbial protein-inspired novel therapeutics for treating genetic diseases, cancer, pain, and other neurological disorders. We have a multi-disciplinary team crossing microbiology, bioinformatics, structural biology, protein engineering, cell biology, insect biology, and neuroscience fields. Recent achievements include identification of receptors for C. difficile toxin via genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen (Nature, 2016, 538:350, Science, 2018, 360:664; Cell Host and Microbe, 2020, 27:782), identification and characterization of novel toxins (Nature Communications, 2017, 8:14130; Cell Host and Microbe, 2018, 23:169, Cell, 2022, 185:1), and protein engineering of botulinum neurotoxins (Nature Communications, 2017, 8:53; Science Translational Medicine, 2021, 13:eaaz4197; Science, 2021, 371:803). Please see lab website for details: http://donglab.hms.harvard.edu

Potential projects include: (1) Molecular and structural mechanisms of bacterial toxins, bacterial infections, host-pathogen and microbiome-pathogen interactions; (2) Discovery and characterization of novel toxins and virulence factors targeting humans and insects, using genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens and Drosophila models; (3) Engineering therapeutic proteins for genetic editing and modulation of signaling networks in cells for treating genetic diseases, pain, neurological disorders, and cancer; (4) Developing therapeutic antibodies and vaccines against emerging pathogens.

Interested candidates please forward your curriculum vitae and names of three references to Dr. Min Dong by email: donglab@childrens.harvard.edu