Research Associate-Pathology

The Department of Pathology at the University of Virginia seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in the laboratory of Dr. Hui Li.

The broad areas of interest in Dr. Li's lab include: gene regulation, abnormal splicing, developmental biology, evolutional biology and cancer.

Genes are considered the units of hereditary information, thus neither genes nor their encoded products are expected to mingle with each other unless in some disease situations. In cancer, a frequent mechanism that can produce gene fusions is chromosomal rearrangement.

However, our work on RNA trans-splicing (Science 2008, Cancer Discovery 2013, NAR 2016, PNAS 2016) and cis-splicing between adjacent genes (cis-SAGe) (Cancer Discovery 2012, PLOS Genetics 2015) provide support for other mechanisms in generating fusion RNA at least in a few isolated cases. With RNA-sequencing, we are identifying hundreds of thousands of chimeric RNA that exceeds our wildest imagination. Ongoing projects are using bioinformatics, evolution biology, and many traditional approaches to study the characteristic, the function, the mechanism and the functional implication of these fusions in cancer and normal physiology.

Postdoctoral employment is temporary and is normally limited to an individual who has been awarded a Ph.D. or equivalent doctorate within the previous five years1 and who will be involved in full-time research or scholarship at the University. Employment as a Postdoctoral Research Associate is viewed as training and is preparatory for a full-time academic or research career, is supervised by a senior scholar, and allows the appointee to publish the results of his/her research or scholarship during the training period.

The successful candidate will have excellent organizational, written and verbal communication skills.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Education: Doctoral degree

The position is a 12-month appointment with the possibility of renewal contingent upon satisfactory performance and the availability of funding.

This is a restricted position; continuation is dependent on funding and satisfactory performance. This position will remain open until filled.

This is an exempt-level, benefitted position. The University will perform background checks on all new hires prior to employment. A pre-employment health screening is required. This position is located in Charlottesville, VA.

To Apply:

Please apply HERE, and search for R0062283. Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile by searching 'Find Jobs' R0062283. Complete an application online with the following documents:

• CV/Resume

• Cover Letter detailing your interest in this position

Upload all materials into the resume submission field, multiple documents can be submitted into this one field. Alternatively, merge all documents into one PDF for submission. Applications that do not contain all required documents will not receive full consideration.

For questions about the application process, please contact Eric Allen, Academic Recruiter, at uth9qh@virginia.edu.

For more information on the benefits available to postdoctoral associates at UVA, visit postdoc.virginia.edu and hr.virginia.edu/benefits.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

This is primarily a sedentary job involving extensive use of desktop computers. The job does occasionally require traveling some distance to attend meetings, and programs.

The University of Virginia, including the UVA Health System which represents the UVA Medical Center, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, UVA Physician's Group and the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, are fundamentally committed to the diversity of our faculty and staff. We believe diversity is excellence expressing itself through every person's perspectives and lived experiences.

We are equal opportunity and affirmative action employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, and family medical or genetic information.