Postdoctoral Scholar - Lindberg Lab

UO HR Website • Eugene, OR

23h • Onsite

About The Position

The Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact is an ambitious initiative designed to fast-track scientific discoveries into innovations that improve the quality of life for people in Oregon, the nation, and the world. The campus creates the intellectual infrastructure to establish Oregon as a center for both research and development, making Oregon a place where companies can start up and grow. The Knight Campus will reshape the higher education landscape in Oregon by training the next generations of scientists, forging tighter ties with industry and entrepreneurs, and creating new educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.

A Postdoc in the Lindberg lab at the Knight Campus at the University of Oregon requires an individual who is self-motivated and has excellent organizational, managerial, and communication skills. This position will participate in a variety of new and ongoing research projects. This position works closely with PI Lindberg to design and implement lab research, supervise PhD students and undergraduate students and manage collaborative relationships with research project external partners. The Lindberg lab explores smart chemical and biological toolkits for biofabrication of advanced 3D-models, organoids, and injectable therapies. Ongoing projects aim to advance treatments for musculoskeletal, hematological, and neural diseases like osteoarthritis, blood cancers, and primary brain tumors. To ensure that our research is clinically relevant, we use patient’s own cells and tissues, capturing a wide range of demographic differences to build smart, personalized models. Our overall goal is to identify therapeutic targets at a patient-specific level and to develop regenerative treatment options for musculoskeletal, hematological, and neural diseases that are effective across the wider population, including patients with compromised endogenous healing environments (e.g. chronic inflammation, diminished stem cell reserves, hypoxia, aging-related endocrine changes, leaky blood vessels, and/or disrupted tissue homeostasis). Working in this lab environment requires a high level of expertise, precision and ability and drive to solve practical problems.

Requirements

• PhD in biofabrication, biomedical engineering, chemistry/materials science, cell biology or a related field
• 2 years of experience in a research environment that uses bioinks/bioresins, biofabrication, hydrogels, or related work.
• 2 years of experience in a research environment that uses cell culture, organoids, microphysiological systems, or related work.
• Demonstrated analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Demonstrated record of scientific productivity, including peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Demonstrated project management and organizational skills, including the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet project deadlines.
• Strong commitment to scientific rigor, reproducibility, and research integrity.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot experimental challenges and develop innovative solutions.
• Ability to work independently while contributing effectively to interdisciplinary research teams.
• Strong ability to establish and maintain productive collaborations with academic, clinical, and industry partners.
• Strong interpersonal skills and commitment to fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and respectful research environment.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze, interpret, and communicate complex experimental datasets.

Nice To Haves

• Experience synthesizing and crosslinking polymers and biomaterials
• Experience with physicochemical and biophysical characterization of biomaterials
• Experience with microfluidic technologies, bioprinting, volumetric bioprinting, or other advanced biofabrication techniques.
• Experience encapsulating and culturing primary human cells within three-dimensional hydrogel systems, or related methods.
• Experience with multiplexed proteomics, Luminex assays, ELISA, or related protein analysis platforms.
• Experience performing histological, immunohistochemical, and/or immunofluorescence characterization of cells, tissues, engineered tissues, or cell-laden hydrogels.
• Experience with biochemical and molecular characterization of cells, tissues, and cell-laden hydrogels, including assessment of viability, metabolic activity, DNA, RNA, protein, extracellular matrix content, or other related analytics.
• Experience isolating, culturing, and characterizing primary human or animal cells from tissues or biological samples.
• Experience developing, submitting, and maintaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols and documentation.
• Experience developing, submitting, and maintaining Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols and documentation.
• Experience with rodent models of musculoskeletal disease, including osteoarthritis or other related vivo models.
• Experience with oxygen sensing, hypoxia-related biology, cellular responses to oxygen tension, or oxygen measurement technologies.
• Experience with non-invasive in vivo imaging modalities.
• Experience working in regulated research environments and maintaining compliance with IRB, IACUC, EHS, data management, or similar requirements.
• Experience mentoring, training, and supervising undergraduate, graduate, or research staff personnel.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research related to biofabrication of oxygen controlling hydrogels as injectable therapeutics for Osteoarthritis.
• Synthesis of bioinks/bioresins.
• Volumetric bioprinting (volumetric additive manufacturing; VAM).
• Oxygen measurements.
• Physiochemical biomaterial characterization.
• Stem cell culture.
• Isolation of human cells and fluids.
• Multiplexed proteomics.
• Biological characterization of cell-laden hydrogels (e.g. live/dead, metabolic assays, biochemical assays, histology, immunohistochemistry and RNAseq).
• Lead in vivo studies evaluating the safety, efficacy, and therapeutic potential of oxygen-controlling hydrogels as injectable treatments for Osteoarthritis.
• Induction of osteoarthritis in a rat model.
• Intra-articular administration of hydrogel therapeutics.
• Longitudinal monitoring of treatment response.
• Collection and processing of biological samples.
• Assessment of local and systemic inflammatory responses.
• Comprehensive tissue characterization through histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular analyses of joint tissues.
• Experimental design.
• Animal protocol development and compliance.
• Data analysis.
• Dissemination of findings through manuscripts and presentations.
• Supervise PhD students and undergraduate students.
• Manage collaborative relationships with research project external partners.

Benefits

• health insurance
• retirement plans
• paid time off

What This Job Offers

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