Research Opportunities in Mechanistic Cancer Research - Molecular Oncology

Washington University in St. Louis

10d•Onsite

About The Position

As a curiosity-driven cancer biology lab, we are broadly interested in uncovering novel cancer targets with the overarching goal of improving patient outcome. Currently, we are focusing on dissecting the complex molecular mechanisms governing genome stability which plays an important role in cancer initiation, progression, and treatment response. Our studies center around two multi-functional proteins, the actin-binding protein Profilin-1 and the AAA+ ATPase p97/VCP. Both are essential proteins with well-known functions in the cytoplasm, but play important yet poorly understood roles in the nucleus. Our recently published (e.g., Zhu et al., 2022 Nature Communications; Zhu et al., 2021 Cell Reports; Zhu et al., 2020 Cell Reports; Wang et al., 2021 Cancers) and currently ongoing work link nuclear Profilin-1 and p97/VCP to fundamentally important cellular processes including transcription, DNA replication, and DNA damage repair and signaling. Our findings highlight the importance of subcellular localization and post-translational modification in the regulation of multi-functional proteins such as Profilin-1 and p97-VCP, and implicate new ways to target their cancer-specific “moonlighting” functions. We believe that mechanistic insights from such studies can reveal hidden “Achilles heels” of cancer cells, and guide the development of novel and personalized treatments. Various standard and specialized molecular, cellular, and animal procedures are performed in the lab such as cell culture, fluorescence microscopy, Western blot, immunoprecipitation, PCR, cloning, genetic mouse models, mouse xenografts, DNA fiber, and proximity ligation assays.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or combination of education and/or experience may substitute for minimum education.
No specific certification/professional license is required for this position.
No specific work experience is required for this position.
A driver's license is not required for this position.