Post-doctoral Fellow in Drug Delivery, Nanomedicine & Advanced Therapeutics

Job Details

Post-doctoral Fellow in Drug Delivery, Nanomedicine & Advanced Therapeutics at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy (several posts) (Ref.: 536520)

We now invite applicants to join the Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Lab of Drug Delivery, Nanomedicine & Advanced Therapeutics at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, LKS Faculty of Medicine. We are looking to recruit a number of highly motivated postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, a lab technician and a research officer to join the international lab of Professor Khuloud Al-Jamal, a Chair of Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine.

The aim of our lab is to use nanotechnology to better understand, diagnose and treat diseases with particular interests in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. We are a highly collaborative and multidisciplinary lab eager to create an impact on people’s lives taking research a step beyond the lab. Research projects we are looking to pursue are in the areas of extracellular vesicles & cell therapy, immunotherapy, nucleic acids therapeutics for brain cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design and develop small molecules, nucleic acids and peptide therapeutics.
• Design, prepare and characterize nanoparticles.
• Employ state-of-the-art techniques to assess the physicochemical properties of nanoparticles, ensuring their stability, drug release kinetics, encapsulation efficiency and electron microscopy imaging.
• Integrate innovative approaches to enhance the specificity and efficiency of advanced therapeutics, with a particular emphasis on addressing challenges related to tissue penetration and targeted delivery.
• Conduct cell culture studies using cell lines, primary cultures and/or patients' tissues for efficacy evaluation.
• Conduct in vivo studies, including administration of nanoparticles, monitoring fate, therapeutic response, and assessing the impact on disease progression.
• Develop relevant disease models to assess therapeutic efficacy of a specific treatment.
• Demonstrate understanding of the disease pathology for better design of advanced therapeutics.
• Coordinate with clinical collaborators to obtain ethical approvals and obtaining human tissue samples for subsequent studies.
• Engage in collaborative projects both internally and externally.
• Periodically report progress to PI, co-investigators, project collaborators, and project funder.
• Initiate and contribute to grant writing activities.
• Write study-specific procedures for analytical methods, protocols, and reports and provide training on processes and equipment.
• Supervise and co-supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students.
• Disseminate research findings through the preparation of research articles and presentations at international conferences.
• Foster an agile and friendly working environment within the research group.

Requirements:

Education and Expertise:

• Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacology, Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology, Bioengineering, Chemistry, Data Science or related fields.
• Post-doctorate experience preferred.
• Proven track record in conducting high-quality biological or chemical research.
• Demonstrated history of writing reports and scientific articles based on research results.

Research Skills:

• Strong background in various research areas including pre-clinical studies, image-guided delivery, nucleic acid therapeutics, targeting and therapeutic aptamers/peptides, immunotherapy, RNA biology, nose-to-brain delivery, blood brain barrier targeting, nanoparticle formulation, peptide therapeutics, T cells therapy, extracellular vesicles, cancer vaccines, brain cancer, motor neuron disease, protein corona, hydrogels, and gene therapy/editing.
• Hands-on experience in advanced cell culture techniques and in vivo models.
• Proficiency in various cell and molecular biology experimentation techniques like PCR, gels, Western blotting, Immunohistochemistry, ELISA and flow cytometry, immune profiling.
• Experience in bioconjugations.

Desirable Skills:

• Highly desirable skills include various in-vivo tracking modalities and imaging techniques for monitoring drug delivery dynamics.
• Additional advantageous skills involve working with patient tissue handling and culturing, surgical implantation of brain cancer, cryo-electron microscopy, transcriptome, proteome, single cell sequencing and bioinformatics, iPSC derived cells, tissue organoids and/or tissue slices, analytical techniques e.g. LC-MS, liquid scintillation, HPLC, MS, NMR.

Administrative and Collaborative Skills:

• Ability to manage a research programme financially and administratively under the guidance of the Principal Investigator.
• Ability to work independently with excellent problem-solving skills, collaborate within a team, and supervise students.
• High attention to detail in experimental design and execution with a willingness to adapt to new procedures and undergo further training as necessary.

Language and Technical Competence:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English.
• Capable of writing grants and contributing to additional funding acquisition.
• Proficient in IT skills for efficient data management and communication within the research programme.

What We Offer

The appointment will commence as soon as possible on a temporary basis for 1 year, with the possibility of renewal up to 3 years subjected to satisfactory performance and funding availability. A highly competitive salary commensurate with qualifications and experience will be offered. Other benefits include annual leave, medical benefits and free access to on-campus gyms and libraries. Those who have responded to the previous advertisement (Ref: 534149) need not re-apply.

How to Apply

The University only accepts online application for the above post(s). Applicants should apply online at the University’s Careers site (https://jobs.hku.hk) and upload an up-to-date C.V. Review of applications will start as soon as possible and continue until August 31, 2026, or until the post(s) is/are filled, whichever is earlier.