Postdoctoral Research Associate - Biochemistry

Job description

Position Summary The Ghanbarpour Laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at WashU Medicine is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to join our interdisciplinary research program. Our lab investigates how bacteria and human mitochondria maintain homeostasis and respond to stress and environmental challenges. A central focus of our research is uncovering the molecular mechanisms of ATP-dependent AAA proteolytic machines, both soluble and membrane-spanning, and their accessory factors in bacterial and mitochondrial systems. We study how these complexes assemble, achieve substrate specificity, and promote bacterial recovery from antibiotic stress, environmental changes, and pathogen attack. These efforts combine cryo-EM and cryo-ET structural biology, biochemical and cellular assays, and mass spectrometry. The lab also explores bacterial defense mechanisms against bacteriophage infection, including rewiring of proteolytic systems and the deployment of innate immune strategies that enable survival during phage attack. In addition, another major focus of our research is protein engineering and the development of new molecular tools based on the...