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 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 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

A Postdoctoral Fellow position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Heather McGee, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Immuno-Oncology in the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope. Dr. McGee is looking for a post-doctoral fellow who is very motivated to lead exciting scientific projects and test novel hypotheses. The post-doctoral researcher must have a background in tumor immunology, murine tumor models and multicolor flow cytometry.

The focus of the McGee lab is to understand how radiation activates tissue resident immune cells in various tumor microenvironments. The long-term goals of the McGee lab are to identify key molecular and immunologic pathways activated by radiation that can be targeted to enhance anti-tumor immunity and/or minimize normal tissue toxicity for gastrointestinal malignancies.

Research in the McGee lab spans the entire spectrum from in vitro experiments to animal models with transgenic and knock-in reporter mice. The post-doctoral fellow will utilize techniques including murine irradiation, multicolor flow cytometry, multi-plex immunofluorescence, microscopy, Western blots, single cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to dissect biologic mechanisms related to radiation that influence the local immune response. The post-doctoral fellow will play a leading role in NIH- and AACR-funded research and will be the first author on presentations and publications that stem from this work.

Dr. McGee values mentorship and meets one-on-one with all members of the lab on a weekly basis. In addition to weekly lab meetings, she leads a weekly journal club where members of her lab discuss key publications related to immunology, tumor immunology and radiobiology. Dr. McGee is eager to mentor post-doctoral fellows of all backgrounds who want to develop a productive career in academic science or medicine. She is committed to helping motivated post-doctoral fellows pursue career opportunities (i.e. conference presentations, career development awards) that will help them achieve their career goals.

In addition, if the post-doctoral candidate has experience with bioinformatics or is interested in learning computational techniques that can be applied to tumor immunology, there is an opportunity to work on a collaborative project with Dr. Nicholas Banovich from TGen.

Dr. McGee is building a team of talented, hard-working, creative and collaborative scientists. Please contact apply if you are motivated, enthusiastic and eager to develop a productive career as a scientist!

Basic education, experience and skills required for consideration:

· A Ph.D. degree in immunology, cancer biology or a related discipline is required with at least 1 first author publication in a related field.

· Experience in cellular immunology and/or tumor immunology as well as molecular biology.

· Proficiency with murine tumor models and multicolor flow cytometry.

· A desire to work in a collaborative, interdisciplinary lab environment that values creativity, initiative, hard work and resilience.

Additional Information:

As a condition of employment, City of Hope requires staff to comply with all state and federal vaccination mandates.

· Dr. McGee’s research is supported by an NIH R00 grant from the National Cancer Institute, the AACR-Debbie’s Dream Award for Gastric Cancer Research, the City of Hope Chancellor’s Award, and her start-up package from City of Hope.

· Research findings from Dr. McGee and colleagues have been published in Nature, Nature Communications, Cancer Immunology Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Immunology, Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer, International Journal of Radiation Oncology* Biology* and Physics, and other journals.