POSTDOCTORAL POSITION is available immediately to study the innate and adaptive resistance of both primary tumors of the liver (human intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma) and hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer to targeted therapeutics. The systems being used to interrogate this deadly cancer include patient-derived xenografts and organoids generated from patient tumor specimens. The research will be conducted in the Surgical Oncology Research Laboratory at The University of California San Francisco and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF. Fields of study include a multi-omic characterization of the pro-tumorigenic niche and the immune microenvironment of the liver using single cell and spatial transcriptomics, screening patient tumor-derived organoids for their responses to targeted drugs based on the absence or presence of druggable driver mutations and tumor phenotype; definition of the significance of hepatic stellate cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts to the responses of liver tumors to drugs; the generation and characterization of xenografts and organoids from Latino-Hispanic patients in order to develop therapeutics targeting cholangiocarcinoma in this underserved patient group; and metabolic reprogramming as a mechanism used by cholangiocarcinoma and colorectal cancer secondaries to evade drug responsiveness. A new project involves the characterization of changes in the expression of small non-coding RNAs as a novel liquid biopsy for cancer screening, assessment of minimal residual disease after surgical extirpation of malignant tumors, and response to therapy in advanced cancers. The above work involves collaborations with Dr. Hani Goodarzi, Jeroen Roose, and Zev Gartner at UCSF and Dr. Wendy Fantl at Stanford University. Please send a current CV together with email contact information and three references. Women and members of minority groups are encouraged to apply. Applications from recipients who received their doctorates recently and can join the laboratory in the immediate future will be favored.
Please send a current CV with email contact and three references to [email protected].