The laboratory of Dr. Yoonsang Cho in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine invites a highly motivated and creative postdoctoral fellow who is enthusiastic to study ligand-receptor systems involved in inflammatory diseases and cancer. The successful candidate is expected to have strong cell biology background and will be encouraged to mainly work on a NIH-funded project to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the interaction between a chemokine-like protein and chemokine receptors and its regulation by small molecules. The project will be highly collaborative with medicinal chemists and immunologists for designing and synthesizing new small molecules based on selected hits from high throughput screening of small molecule libraries and evaluating their therapeutic effects in animal models of human diseases. Depending on the candidate’s experience and interest, X-ray crystallography, NMR, enzyme kinetics, and high throughput screening studies will be conducted concomitantly.
The laboratory is located in the state of the art Doisy Research Center (DRC) in the medical school. We have an innovative and powerful label-free biosensor-based cellular assay system for the quantitative measurement of cellular response in real time, an exclusive tissue culture room, liquid chromatography purification system, and Macintosh and Linux workstations. The department has three R-Axis IV++ imaging plate systems for high-resolution X-ray diffraction data collection, a crystallization robot, molecular graphics facility, differential scanning calorimeter, isothermal titration calorimeter, dynamic light scattering, metabolomics core facility, and bioinformatics facility. In the same building, are animal care facility, flow cytometry research core, animal imaging core, microarray core, research microscopy and confocal core, and the Center for World Health and Medicine, which provides a full range of support for drug discovery programs including design and synthesis of small molecules and their preclinical characterization. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in immunology, cell biology, biochemistry or a related field. Solid knowledge and hands-on experience in signaling studies with immune cells expressing cytokine/chemokine receptors is essential. Structural and chemical biology experience is a plus. He or she must have excellent skills in oral and written English as well as inherent ability to organize experimental data for efficient communication and publication. Applicants should send a cover letter with their brief scientific background and motivation for the position along with a complete CV, including research experience and the names and contact information of three references to Yoonsang Cho via email. Please feel free to make informal inquiries via email. Yoonsang Cho, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Saint Louis University School of Medicine 1100 South Grand Avenue St. Louis, MO 63104 Email: [email protected] URL: http://biochemweb.slu.edu/people/faculty/cho.shtml
