Postdoctoral Researcher, Biological Design, Hsu Lab

Arc Institute • Palo Alto, CA

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Hsu Lab is looking for postdoctoral researchers who are curious, creative, and ambitious and share the vision of programming biology and building tangible products that impact everyday lives. The lab broadly develops technologies for biological engineering and design. Recent work has included bridge recombinases, large serine recombinases, CRISPR systems, and AI-designed molecular systems. Beyond the genome, the lab aims to modulate physiology through synthetic peptides, microbiome engineering, or rational nutrition. Finally, they merge advances in biology and AI to mine the metagenomic sequence space, enable generative genome design, and build towards a virtual cell. Research frontiers include discovery and engineering of modulators/probes/drug-like molecules for general physiological control and human enhancement, immune rejuvenation and skin/microbe/barrier tissue rejuvenation for aging-related phenotypes, and new programmable molecular tools for synthetic biology and AI-guided perturbations of cellular behavior. Postdocs are encouraged to lead ambitious, independent projects, resulting in high-impact publications. They will have the opportunity to collaborate widely across Arc, Stanford, and the broader Bay Area ecosystem, with access to strong platforms for genomics, single-cell technologies, synthetic biology, computation, and experimental model systems.

Requirements

• Doctorate (MD, PhD, or equivalent) in a relevant life sciences or engineering field.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced environment and be both an independent thinker and a highly collaborative team player.
• Track record of creative, high-impact research as demonstrated by publications, patents, developed tools, software etc.

Nice To Haves

• Extremely Curious & Self-Motivated: You push the boundaries of biotechnology and/or biomedical research.
• High-Velocity Researcher: You thrive in a fast-paced environment and have a bias for action, conducting rigorous and impactful research at scale.
• Intellectually Independent: You are a "first-principles" thinker, able to design new research directions and projects.
• Technical Polyglot: You are comfortable (or eager to become so) at the intersection of wet-lab experimentation and computational modeling.

Responsibilities

• Conduct high-impact research: Design, execute, and analyze experiments; take end-to-end ownership of a research project within the lab’s scientific focus, with guidance from the PI and increasing independence as you develop expertise.
• Develop as a future scientific leader: Publish first-author papers in high-impact journals, present at national and international conferences, and build a network of collaborators across Arc, Stanford, and beyond.
• Foster scientific excellence: Mentor and train research associates, technicians, and students; engage in Arc-wide activities (seminars, symposia); contribute to a collaborative research environment; maintain rigorous experimental records and documentation; and contribute to lab operations including protocol development and maintaining shared infrastructure.

What This Job Offers

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