About City of Hope

City of Hope is an independent biomedical research and treatment organization for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.

Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a leader in bone marrow transplantation and immunotherapy such as CAR T cell therapy. City of Hope’s translational research and personalized treatment protocols advance care throughout the world. Human synthetic insulin, monoclonal antibodies and numerous breakthrough cancer drugs are based on technology developed at the institution. AccessHope™, a subsidiary launched in 2019 serves employers and their health care partners by providing access to City of Hope’s specialized cancer expertise.

A National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, City of Hope is ranked among the nation’s “Best Hospitals” in cancer by U.S. News & World Report and received Magnet Recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Its main campus is located near Los Angeles, with additional locations throughout Southern California and in Arizona.

City of Hope’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We believe diversity, equity and inclusion is key in serving our mission to provide compassionate patient care, drive innovative discovery, and advance vital education focused on eliminating cancer and diabetes in all of our communities. Our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ensures we bring the full range of skills, perspectives, cultural backgrounds and experiences to our work -- and that our teams align with the people we serve in order to build trust and understanding. We are dedicated to fostering a community that embraces diversity - in ideas, backgrounds and perspectives; this is reflected in our work and represented in our people.

Position Summary

We are seeking a talented and motivated Postdoctoral Fellow within the multidisciplinary research team headed by Dr. Ajay Goel, Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics and Associate Director of Basic Sciences, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer. Our research group comprises of basic biologists, gastroenterologists, surgeons, medical oncologists and bioinformaticians, undertaking a number of collaborative projects involving large international consortia.

Our research is focused on translational research as it relates to genomic and epigenomic characterization of various gastrointestinal cancers (GI) including colorectal, pancreatic and gastric cancers, and some of the key research topics include: 1) Development of circulating DNA/RNA-based liquid biopsy biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and predictive response to various therapies. 2) Study the epigenetic basis of GI cancers (e.g. aberrant DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs. 3) The genetic basis of early-onset and familial/hereditary colorectal cancers. 4) The role of tumor microenvironment, stem cells, immune regulation and identification of novel targeted therapies. 5) The role of extracellular vesicles/exosomes as in cancer pathogenesis and their role as disease biomarkers. Our group performs cutting-edge research in GI oncology, is very productive and publishes in high-impact journals such as Gastroenterology, Cancer Cell, PNAS, JNCI, Clinical Cancer Research, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Annals of Surgery etc.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Exploration of cell-free DNA-based, liquid biopsy biomarkers for the early-detection of gastrointestinal cancers (including colorectal, pancreatic, gastric, liver and esophageal).
• Establish innovative methodologies involving non-coding RNAs-based biomarkers for the earlier diagnosis, prognosis and predictive responses to chemotherapy in gastrointestinal neoplasia.
• Understanding the genetic basis of early-onset and familial/hereditary colorectal cancers
• Molecular mechanisms of cancer pathogenesis, the role of stem cells in the context of chemo resistance chemo-sensitization in cancer cells
• Gut microbiome and its influence in gastrointestinal cancers

The position is largely computational and biostatistical but involves substantial collaboration with wet-lab researchers providing data and is focused on fundamental biology. This interdisciplinary position offers opportunities to address important questions in computational biology and cancer genomics with first access to large novel data sets from various genomic/epigenomic platforms. We have a strong preference for bioinformaticians/biostatistician/computational biologists with a deep appreciation of biological phenomena or, alternatively, experimentalists with a solid background in bioinformatics/computational biology analysis of transcriptomic and genomic data with regard to detection of differentially expressed genes, noncoding RNAs, DNA methylation and differential processing profiles.

Basic education, experience and skills required for consideration:

• PhD in bioinformatics, computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics, physics or equivalent
• Hands-on and documented experience in analyzing RNA-Seq data, small RNA-Seq data, Methylation sequencing, WES, 16S RNA seq etc.
• Ability to do multi-omic analysis using a combination of various sequencing datasets

Additional Information:

• For more information about the groundbreaking research taking place in the Ajay Goel, Ph.D lab, please visit www.cityofhope.org/mdet.
• As a condition of employment, City of Hope requires staff to comply with all state and federal vaccination mandates.