Postdoctoral Research Associate

About the Role

A postdoctoral research associate position is available with Dr. Xinwei Cao to investigate how transcriptional regulatory networks establish and maintain neural identity during brain development. The project will combine mouse genetic models with genome-wide profiling and mechanistic assays to define how key transcriptional regulators engage cofactors and select cis-regulatory elements to control gene expression in neural progenitors.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform and troubleshoot genomics assays (e.g., bulk RNA-seq, CUT&RUN, ATAC-seq, and single-cell RNA-seq), and integrate datasets to identify regulatory mechanisms and key targets.
• Conduct in vivo and ex vivo functional studies, including in vivo perturbation experiments (viral delivery, electroporation) and quantitative histological and molecular phenotyping.
• Develop and apply in vitro mechanistic assays to study transcription factor (TF) interactions and TF-DNA interactions.
• Maintain rigorous documentation and reproducible analysis workflows.
• Contribute to manuscripts, presentations, and grant-related writing.
• Participate in team science within the lab and with collaborators (e.g., computational biology/bioinformatics and gene regulation expertise).

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Minimum Education: PhD in biology or related fields.
• Hands-on experience with standard molecular biology techniques (e.g., molecular cloning).
• Ability to perform experiments consistently and rigorously.
• Ability to design experiments rationally and analyze data critically.
• Clear scientific communication (writing, figure preparation, and presentations) and strong collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong background in developmental neurobiology and/or gene regulation.
• Experience in biochemistry and molecular biology skills (protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions).
• Computational analysis of sequencing data (R/Python or established pipelines).
• Strong publication record.