Razani lab

Postdoctoral Fellow Research Opportunity in Cardiology

 

Department Name/Job Location:

This opportunity is in the Division of Cardiology and Vascular Medicine Institute, the Department of Medicine and located at BST Starz – Lothrop Street across from UPMC Presbyterian.

 

Job Type/Schedule:

This opportunity is full-time.  Hours are generally normal business hours but may vary due to the timing of experiments and other research activity deadlines.

 

Essential Functions:

The interest of this academic laboratory (PI:  Babak Razani) is understanding the mechanisms of atherosclerosis, diabetes, and obesity with special emphasis on the roles of macrophages.  We and others have shown that perturbations in cellular processes involving autophagy, lysosomes, and inflammasomes play a critical role in macrophage dysfunction and subsequent atherosclerotic plaque progression (reviewed in Sergin and Razani - Trends Endocrinol Metab 2014 and Sergin, Evans, and Razani - Curr Opin Lipidol 2015).  The primary focus of the lab will be to understand the mechanisms by which these cellular processes affect metabolism, determine if their manipulation ameliorates metabolic disease, and translate our findings to develop novel therapeutics in human coronary artery disease, obesity, and insulin resistance.

These questions are being studied using a combination of molecular and cell biology approaches in mouse primary cells/cell-lines, mouse models, human monocytes/monocyte-derived macrophages, and induced pleuripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived macrophages.

 

Required Qualifications:

Candidates with extensive prior experience in cell, molecular biology or related fields with a Ph.D. or M.D. degree are encouraged to apply.

 

Preferred Qualifications:

1.  Mammalian cell culture

2.  Basic Microbiology skills

3.  Experience with microscopy especially confocal/fluorescence microscopy

4.  Proficiency in basic molecular biology techniques including DNA, RNA, protein isolation and

     purification, PCR, cloning, reverse transcription PCR, immunoblot, ELISA

5.  Experience with immunocyto- and histo-chemistry, experience working with frozen and paraffin

     embedded tissue.

6.  Experience with flow cytometry and immunology

7.  Ability to handle mice, perform injections, harvest tissue

 

Salary Range:

Salary will follow NIH guidelines and will be adjusted by achievement.

 

Benefits:

This opportunity is eligible for full-time benefits.  Please visit our website at http://hr.pitt.edu to view a summary of benefits.

 

Applicant Special Instructions:

Please contact Dr. Babak Razani at brazani@pitt.edu or at 412/648-7496. Candidates must provide a current CV and 2 to 3 references that can be contacted directly by phone and/or email.