Postdoctoral Associate Position — Functional Genomics / Regulatory Genomics / Human Evolution & Disease (Reilly Lab)

Description

The Reilly Lab seeks a highly motivated Postdoctoral Associate to join an interdisciplinary research program focused on understanding how genetic variants impact human health, evolution, and disease. The lab seeks to answer a fundamental question remaining in biology: "how do genetic changes lead to functional changes at the molecular, cellular, and phenotypic level?" The Reilly Lab is funded by the NIH, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and other foundations, and is an affiliate of the Impact of Genomic Variation on Function (IGVF) consortium as well as part of an ENCODE functional characterization center. The lab is especially interested in non-coding cis-regulatory elements (CREs) and the variation within them, using high-throughput experimental approaches such as non-coding CRISPR screens, the Massively Parallel Reporter Assay (MPRA), saturation mutagenesis, and synthetic sequence design, alongside machine-learning models of regulatory grammar.

The postdoctoral associate will – based on their research interest – contribute across one or more of the lab's five core themes:

• Genomic Technology: Design and execute new, large-scale experimental screens to perturb CREs, including non-coding CRISPR screens and MPRAs.
• Deciphering Regulatory "Grammar": Use saturation mutagenesis paired with machine-learning models to understand the rules by which CREs regulate gene expression.
• Interrogating Genetic Architectures: Explore how combinations of variants together create a phenotype or disease state through phenotype associations and network logic models.
• Writing Novel Genome Function: Design and validate synthetic sequences that promote cell-type-specific gene expression.
• Exploring Evolution & Human Health: Investigate how changes in the non-coding genome shape modern human phenotypes, disease risk, and the evolution of our species, including signals of positive selection across global populations.

In addition, the postdoctoral associate will:

• Analyze and interpret large-scale genomic, functional genomics, and population genetics datasets
• Contribute to manuscript preparation, grant writing, and collaborative projects within the lab and across the IGVF and ENCODE consortia
• Participate in written and oral communication of research findings
• Prep and publish original research, including abstracts and peer-reviewed manuscripts
• Mentor trainees (as appropriate) and participate in a highly interactive research environment

Qualifications

We're looking for inquisitive, creative, and passionate researchers with a PhD, MD, or MD/PhD (or related field such as genetics, genomics, computational biology, biochemistry, machine learning, population genetics, or evolutionary biology). The lab is multi-disciplinary, and applicants from a variety of backgrounds — including those interested in human evolution, building new genomic tools, or analyzing complex data — would find a project here. Strong communication skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team are essential. A two-year commitment is required.