Postdoctoral Fellow: Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery

Highly motivated PostDoctoral Fellows are sought to join the laboratory of Dr. Sebti at the NCI designated Massey Cancer Center and the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. The research focus of the laboratory is to understand at the basic science level how normal cells become malignant and to translate such fundamental knowledge to the clinic. Specifically, the candidates will be involved in exciting and highly integrated inter-disciplinary research projects concerning understanding aberrant oncogenic KRas signal transduction pathways in cancer and designing novel anti-cancer drugs based on this knowledge.

The following are examples of projects that the candidates will be engaged in :
1. Understanding the mechanism of mutant KRAS addiction and developing drugs to thwart mutant KRAS-driven cancers
2. Identifying small molecules that bind K-Ras and investigating the mechanism by which they block oncogenesis.
3. Identifying kinases that are synthetically lethal with mutant K-Ras.
4. Identifying cell surface proteins specifically expressed on human cancers that are addicted to mutant K-Ras, and developing therapeutic strategies based on these discoveries.
5. Developing dual FTase and GGTase -1 inhibitors as novel anti-cancer drugs targeting human tumors that harbor mutant K-Ras.


Required Education and Experience:
Education: Highly talented individuals with PhD and relevant experience in cancer molecular biology, biochemistry, cancer cell biology, pharmacology, in vivo anti-tumor efficacy in animal models and/or drug discovery.

Training/Experience required:
1. Hands-on experience in cancer molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology and/or pharmacology
2. Experience with in vitro assays and in vivo animal models as they relate to drug discovery
3. Ability to design and perform experiments, to manage research projects, and to analyze and interpret data, to make conclusions and plan forward.
4. Ability to maintain detailed documentation through electronic and notebook means.
5. Excellent past productivity as documented by publications
6. Demonstrated creativity, high motivation, solid communication skills and experience in writing progress reports and manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications.
7. Ability to work independently as well as demonstrated ability to work professionally and efficiently within the research group as a team player.
8. Candidate must have a demonstrated commitment to diversity or a commitment to do so as a an employee at VCU.

This is a restricted position with no set end date and continued employment is dependent upon project need, availability of funding, and performance.

The School of Medicine continuously strives for our workplace and learning environment to reflect the demographic and social milieu of the communities we serve. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.