Job Summary

The Emfinger lab in the Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center explores factors that drive diabetes risk by altering insulin secretion and action, focusing on ways in which these factors interact. Projects use machine learning methods and omics data to nominate candidate drivers of islet responses, identify potential conditional dependencies between them, and validate them using wet-lab experiments in mice and human tissues.

Dr. Emfinger is looking to recruit Postdoctoral Scholars interested in islet biology and machine learning. The Postdoctoral scholar will have the opportunity to collect data, analyze large datasets, prepare manuscripts (as first or co-author), and present work at conferences. The environment at UK is open and collaborative and draws from multiple disciplines in endocrinology, biostatistics, genetics, metabolism, and other areas with which there are opportunities to collaborate. The Scholar will also be supported in their own grant applications (e.g. fellowships, pilot proposals). The Scholar is encouraged to develop their own projects related to the goals of the lab. Techniques of interest in these projects include adenoviral transfection of cells/tissues, generation of islet organoids, islet perifusion and islet imaging assays, in vivo assays of metabolism (e.g. glucose tolerance tests), and developing novel machine learning models (in Python and R). Experience with mammalian cell and tissue culture, transfections, and in vivo phenotyping (particularly oral gavage in mouse models) is required.

Please include a statement of research interests within the cover letter of no more than two pages.

Skills / Knowledge / Abilities

• Strong motivation for metabolic research.
• Some experience working with mice.
• Proficiency in English.
• Interest in learning new techniques.

Preferred Education/Experience

Background in metabolic research preferred.