Postdoctoral Fellow - Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy

City of Hope • Duarte, CA

4d • Onsite

About The Position

Join the forefront of groundbreaking research at City of Hope where we're changing lives and making a real difference in the fight against cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Our dedicated and compassionate faculty and staff are driven by a common mission: Contribute to innovative approaches in predicting, preventing, and curing diseases, shaping the future of medicine through cutting-edge research.
The laboratory of Dr. Shoubao Ma at the City of Hope National Medical Center is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our research team.
The Ma Lab is dedicated to advancing the understanding and application of cancer immunology and immunotherapy, with the overarching goal of developing innovative immune-based treatments for cancer and other diseases. Our research integrates fundamental immunology, functional genomics, and translational cell engineering to uncover mechanisms of immune regulation and translate these discoveries into next-generation therapeutics.

Requirements

• Ph.D. degree in life or biomedical sciences, or a related discipline.
• Expertise in NK cell development and function.
• Knowledge of tumor immunology and immunotherapy.
• Experience with ex vivo and/or in vivo CAR NK or CAR T cell engineering.
• Experience with CRISPR screening and CRISPR-based gene editing.
• At least one first-author publication in a high-impact journal.
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English, both written and spoken.
• Strong team orientation and interpersonal skills.

Nice To Haves

• Possibility to drive research towards a novel cancer therapy at the interface of science and translation to the clinic.
• Opportunity to publish in high-impact journals.
• Commitment to the program for a minimum of three years.

Responsibilities

• Investigate the molecular and cellular regulation of natural killer (NK) cells, including mechanisms controlling NK cell development, differentiation, activation, and effector function, with a focus on how NK cells recognize and eliminate malignant cells.
• Study mechanisms of tumor immune evasion using high-throughput CRISPR-based functional genomics approaches to identify genes and pathways that enable tumor cells to evade immune attack.
• Develop and optimize NK cell-based immunotherapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cells, focusing on improving their persistence, potency, trafficking, and safety.
• Explore transformative approaches for next-generation cell therapy and in vivo immune engineering, including in vivo CAR therapies that directly reprogram immune cells within the patient.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree