Summary

The Texas Children’s Microbiome Center in the Department of Pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine is seeking a highly motivated and dedicated PhD individual for a Staff Scientist position in the area of microbial metabolomics and microbe:human cell signaling. The Staff Scientist will serve the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), and its research mission in the Texas Children’s Microbiome Center, and will participate in research and development of tools to study host-microbiome interactions, under the supervision of James Versalovic, MD, PhD. The Staff Scientist will work in the Department of Pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Job Duties

Designing and troubleshooting experiments 45%

• Performance of Microbial Culture and Microbial Metabolomics Using LC-MS Methodologies
  • Culturing microbial strains (e.g., bacteria, fungi) under controlled conditions to study their growth, behavior, and metabolic output
  • Comprehensive analysis of small molecules (metabolites) produced by microbes
• Develop Human Cell-Based Model Systems Including Cell Culture and Organoid Experiments
  • Human cell culture: Growing human cells (e.g., epithelial, immune, stem cells) in vitro to mimic physiological conditions
  • Organoid experiments: Creating 3D mini-organs from stem cells that replicate key features of human tissues (e.g., gut, brain, liver)
• Investigation of Immune Cell Responses and Myeloid Cell Differentiation
  • Immune cell response analysis: Monitoring how immune cells (e.g., T cells, macrophages) react to microbial metabolites or other stimuli
  • Myeloid cell differentiation: Studying how stem or progenitor cells develop into various myeloid lineages (e.g., monocytes, dendritic cells)
  • Techniques may involve:
    • Flow cytometry, cytokine profiling, transcriptomics
    • Functional assays to assess phagocytosis, antigen presentation, or inflammatory signaling
    • New techniques by use of the above or other novel procedures
• Computational Biology and Multi-Omics Data Analysis
  • Computational biology: Using algorithms, statistical models, and software tools to analyze biological data
  • Multi-omics: Integrating data from various omics layers such as Genomics (DNA, Transcriptomics (RNA), Proteomics (proteins), and Metabolomics (metabolites).

Manuscript/grant duties (preparation, writing) 40%

Provide technical expertise, training or mentoring to Postdocs, grad students or staff 10%

Assist with maintenance of computational servers in the Texas Childrens Microbiome Center

Present findings in meetings 5%

Perform other job related duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications

• Doctoral Degree. Experience may not be substituted in lieu of degree.
• Three years of post doctoral research experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong background in microbiology and human cell signaling is highly desirable.
• Applicants with previous experience in immunology and drug discovery will be favorably considered.