Research Scientist I/II--Crohn's Disease

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITYWe are looking for dynamic, highly motivated & collaborative individuals to join a team of scientists, led by Ramnik Xavier, David Altshuler, & Stuart Schreiber, working to underst& the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). The project involves characterizing the functional roles of genes underlying CD & deciphering pathways that contribute to disease. This knowledge will be used in follow up studies to screen for small molecules that modulate disease relevant pathways. Initial experiments will be performed in cellular & animal models, but with a focus on enabling human clinical investigation of CD. Successful c&idates will apply a wide range of skills in gene expression & function at the molecular, cellular, & whole organism level towards a better underst&ing of the molecular biology & immunology of CD. Research will focus on the use of disease models to study pathogenesis, functional analysis of genetic variants in humans, & technology development for high-throughput signaling pathway screens. Priority will be given to individuals who have a strong molecular biology &/or immunology background, & whose research experience bridges multiple disciplines. brbrCharacteristic duties-Work as part of a team to accelerate the annotation of disease gene function & critically evaluate the scientific merit of various approaches. -Execute high-throughput systematic perturbation experiments in normal & CD patient cell cultures to develop multiple complementary molecular signatures of such perturbations (e. g. , gene expression, protein interaction, pathway activation) as well as to determine phenotypes of cells after such perturbation (e. g. , immune cell deregulation, anti-microbial response defects, etc). -Use synthesized information from perturbation experiments to create & phenotype CD-relevant animal models with the goals of underst&ing disease mechanisms in vivo & testing potentially therapeutic chemical compounds. -Work closely with computational biologists to interpret resulting data sets. -Develop, optimize, & implement effective plans.br- participate in setting project scope & recommending new research directions. -Make significant contributions to scientific papers & presentations. Participate in the writing of grant proposals & engage in external activities, technical meetings, & invited symposia.