Postdoctoral Researcher, Jain Lab

About Arc Institute

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution conducting curiosity-driven basic science and technology development to understand and treat complex human diseases. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is an independent research organization founded on the belief that many important research programs will be enabled by new institutional models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley.

While the prevailing university research model has yielded many tremendous successes, we believe in the importance of institutional experimentation as a way to make progress. These include:

• Funding: Arc fully funds Core Investigators’ (PIs’) research groups, liberating scientists from the typical constraints of project-based external grants.
• Technology: Biomedical research has become increasingly dependent on complex tooling. Arc Technology Centers develop, optimize, and deploy rapidly advancing experimental and computational technologies in collaboration with Core Investigators. 
• Support: Arc aims to provide first-class support—operationally, financially, and scientifically—that will enable scientists to pursue long-term high risk, high reward research that can meaningfully advance progress in disease cures, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune dysfunction.
• Culture: We believe that culture matters enormously in science and that excellence is difficult to sustain. We aim to create a culture that is focused on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, broad ambition, and selfless collaboration.

Arc has scaled to nearly 200 people. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly in the coming years.

About the position

The Jain Lab (https://ishajainlab.com) is looking for motivated, hard-working and curious applicants. At a high level, we study how organisms interact with their environments – how “what we breathe” and “what we eat” affects our metabolism and disease progression. More specifically, we are focused on oxygen and vitamin/cofactor metabolism. We recently discovered that chronic hypoxia (equivalent to living in the mountains of Peru or Nepal) can serve as a therapy for mitochondrial disease. This approach is currently in clinical trials. This work has inspired a broader set of research directions ranging from fundamental biochemistry to animal physiology.

The questions we ask:

1. How do cells and organisms sense oxygen or vitamin levels? Are there novel oxygen sensors and vitamin sensors to be found?
2. How does the body adapt to variations in oxygen levels? Or vitamin levels?
3. When the supply and demand of oxygen or vitamins becomes mismatched, how does this contribute to disease?
4. Can we “turn the oxygen and vitamin dials” as creative new therapies?
5. What is the most practical form of turning these concepts into translatable therapies?

The approach we take: CRISPR screens, metabolomics, classical biochemistry/molecular biology, animal physiology and beyond.

Post-docs will be encouraged to lead independent projects resulting in high impact publications, present at conferences and prepare for long-term careers in academia or industry.

About you

• You are extremely curious and self-motivated to push the boundaries of biomedical research.
• You thrive in a fast-paced environment while conducting rigorous and impactful research.
• You are intellectually independent and are able to design new research directions and projects (with input from your PI).
• You are eager to learn and adapt new techniques.
• You are excited by solving puzzles that have a translational impact. 

In this position you will

• Find new functions for enzymes or cofactors (vitamins)
• Contribute to our molecular understanding of how key metabolites are sensed by the body.
• Develop novel therapeutic strategies for nutrient-based therapies.
• Collaborate with post-docs and students to understand how enzymes and metabolites interact for key biochemical functions.
• Publish, present, and represent that lab in journals and conferences.
• Present at lab meetings, and participate in Arc-wide activities (seminars, symposiums, etc).

Requirements

• PhD in metabolism, animal physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics, or related 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.

The minimum base salary for this position is $80,000. Base salary for this role is determined by how many months of relevant postdoctoral experience a successful candidate has. Base salary for this role is not negotiable.