A job opening has become available for a highly motivated postdoctoral follow to work on NIH and ACS-funded projects aiming to discover and characterize small molecule degraders of oncoproteins and aging related proteins utilizing cryo-EM and computer-guided drug design.
Their team led by Drs. Takagi, Bellail, and Hao, investigates targeted protein degradation for the discovery of small molecule degraders. The team has recently reported the first small molecule degraders of SUMO1 protein as novel anticancer drugs (Bellail et al. Science Translational Medicine 2021, 13:e12947, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abh1486). The team are currently working on Cryo-EM structure guided and computer-aided drug design of small molecule degraders of oncoproteins and aging proteins.
What they Offer:
1) State-of-the art protein and protein complex expression technologies (patent pending) enabling expression of difficult-to-express, problematic proteins and protein complexes.
2) The opportunity to work with the projects regarding an emerging field of “protein degraders.”
3) The opportunity to learn or/and to be engaged in structure-guided and computer-aided drug design.
4) Accessibility to Glacios (in-house) and Titan Krios G4 housed in Purdue University (an hour drive from our lab) where we have plenty of guaranteed access time.
5) Cryo-EM training (in-house) will be offered.
6) The opportunity to work with multiple outstanding collaborators (e.g., HHMI investigators). See our previous work (Fukudome at al., PNAS 2021, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2115899118)
Who Should Apply:
This position could be a great fit for you if:
You have the expertise and experience in structural biology (Cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography), and want to apply such skills toward structure determination of oncoproteins and aging related proteins complex to understand structural basis of how protein degraders work.
You are interested in the emerging field of protein degraders.
You are interested in learning and developing for the cutting-edge protein complex engineering and expression technologies.
You are interested in learning and implement computer-aided compound design.
You would like to extend your existing skill sets to cryo-EM.
You relish working on technically challenging problems, which often require an extended persistent effort to crack.
Job Description, Qualification, and Expectations:
Primary activities in this position include but are not limited to:
Expression and purification of the protein complexes for biochemical and structural studies related to protein degraders
Structure determination of the protein complexes mostly by cryo-EM or/and X-ray crystallography Biochemical assays to characterize the recombinant protein complexes Providing intellectual contributions to the projects including writing manuscripts, fellowship application and helping PI for grant applications Ph.D. in structural biology (X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM) is strongly preferred. But someone with strong biochemistry background, who wants to expand his or her skills to cryo-EM would strongly be considered.
If interested, please apply to this position via the university job portal.
Please make sure that you provide a cover letter, CV, and two reference letters.
If you have any question, please feel free to contact Yuichiro H. Takagi at ytakagi@iu.edu Applications will be screened until a suitable candidate is found. Indiana University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
