08 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of British Columbia, Canada

The Biosynthetic Enzymes Laboratory is an interdisciplinary research group working in the field of chemical biology with a focus on enzymes that construct natural products. We are seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow to our structural biology efforts. We study novel enzymes and use X-ray crystallography as a major tool to elucidate enzyme mechanisms. Recent work from our group has been published in Nature Chemistry, Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, JACS, and Angewandte Chemie. We are seeking a postdoctoral fellow with broad interests in enzymology and in-depth training in the area of X-ray crystallography.

Our laboratory is located centrally in the vibrant UBC campus, with easy access to the ocean, mountains, and downtown. Vancouver is routinely ranked among the most livable cities in the world.

Fluid biomarkers can provide a detailed picture of neurological health and disease using relatively low-cost, accessible, objective, and scalable tools. There has been a rapid expanse of research into candidate blood-based biomarkers that show utility for the diagnosis and prognosis of neurological conditions. This position will focus on the statistical analysis for multiple projects involving large scale databases from various cohorts, including but not limited to traumatic or hypoxic brain injury, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, Multiple Sclerosis and healthy aging. The postdoctoral fellow will oversee their own individual project, to be developed in collaboration between the supervisor and a successful candidate. They will also provide guidance to lab members for other projects.

At MéridaLabs, we are recruiting a motivated and solution-oriented postdoctoral fellow (PDF). Our group focuses on integrated energy systems research that encompasses breakthrough technologies, policy, energy conversion, new business models, techno-economic and life cycle analyses, machine learning, optimization, AI, intelligent networks, among others.

The PDF will join an ongoing project studying production of green hydrogen via high temperature and pressure (HTP) water electrolysis being investigated through a custom-built HTP reactor. This work departs from traditional water electrolysis conditions, and seeks to assess component behaviour and system performance under HTP conditions. Part of this work will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Quebec at Trois Rivieres (UQTR). The scope for this role also includes work on reference electrode development for electrolysis cells, including long-term accelerated stress tests.

The ideal candidate is expected to i) have strong hands-on experience in electrochemical device applications and characterization techniques; ii) have practical experience in electrochemical cell and cell stack design, especially for water electrolysis; iii) have the ability to conduct electrochemical characterizations on the HTP setup; iv) be able to analyze and interpret experimental data using various data analysis software (e.g., Excel, Python and Origin); vi) develop new testing procedures and identify/implement process improvements; vii) report and troubleshoot issues related to instrumentation and testing.

The position will be embedded in a team where a high degree of interaction and collaboration is expected toward completion of all project objectives. This role will have the opportunity to develop the above lines of research, support and mentor student teams, and identify ways to expand the relationship with our partners and identify new research goals. In addition to excellent communication, project management, and technical writing skills, suitable candidates should also have the following:

Qualifications:

A postdoctoral research fellowship is available in the laboratory of Dr. Mari DeMarco in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia (www.DeMarcoLab.ca). The fellow will lead the technological design, analytical validation and clinical evaluation of biofluid diagnostics to support early and accurate diagnosis neurodegenerative proteinopathies. The laboratory has a variety of analytical tools to pursue protein biomarker assay development, including an array of mass spectrometric and immunometric equipment. The intended primary methodology for this work will be quantitative/targeted protein mass spectrometry, and dependent on the fellow’s interests and goals, can be expanded to other analytical approaches. The primary focus of the lab is in advancing protein biomarkers/assays for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal degeneration, Parkinson’s disease dementia. As the lab routinely engages with clinical partners to help solve urgent diagnostic challenges, the fellow may also have the opportunity to participate in building fit-for-purpose analytical tools for applications beyond dementia.   

The fellow will be based at St Paul’s Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of British Columbia (UBC) located in downtown Vancouver, Canada. The DeMarco laboratory physically spans the domains and research and medicine with footprints in both the hospital laboratory and the UBC research centre at St. Paul’s Hospital. The candidate will work in a collaborative clinical research environment, and will interact regularly with physicians, laboratory medicine professionals, and other collaborators.

The successful candidate will work with Prof. Rachel White, collaborating extensively with Dr. Michael Sigmond from Environment Climate Change Canada (ECCC, Victoria, BC, Canada). The post-doctoral researcher will be expected to take leadership of this project, completing the following objectives:

1. Perform a comprehensive analysis of Canada-focussed future projections of atmospheric circulation patterns and associated temperature and hydrological extremes in novel simulations of the CanESM and CanRCM that employ run-time empirical bias-correction (EBC) techniques.
2. Quantify and understand the benefits (and limitations) of EBC for future projections and how such benefits will translate into improved downstream applications.
3. Collaborate with the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma) on the future application of EBC in climate model simulations, and provide software packages to enhance diagnostic capacity in atmospheric dynamics variables and metrics.

There is flexibility within this project for additional analysis to be conducted, and the ideal candidate would bring their own ideas to the project team.

We have an outstanding opportunity for a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Radiology – University of British Columbia to engage in a closely collaborative research and development project with our industry partner, Torus Biomedical Solutions. The goal of this project is to develop a software solution that facilitates automatic image-based measurements within an existing intraoperative assessment product. The postdoctoral candidate will have the support, guidance, and supervision from the engineering team at the company led by Dr. Shahram Amiri as well as Dr. ilker Hacihaliloglu assistant professor at the Department of Radiology – University of British Columbia.

As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, you’ll play a pivotal role in leading and contributing to the development of a machine learning approach to automate intraoperative X-ray-based measurements in orthopedic surgery. Your tasks will include establishing a pipeline for generating synthetic fluoroscopic images, conducting a thorough review of cutting-edge techniques, and designing and testing deep learning neural networks for bone segmentation and landmark annotation. You’ll also evaluate system performance in both simulated and real surgical environments. Working closely with a diverse team of engineers, researchers, and surgeons, your contributions can seamlessly integrate into an existing commercial product. Furthermore, your research findings will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

The Wisnovsky & Williams labs (UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences) are inviting applications for a jointly-supervised postdoctoral fellowship position. The fellow will lead a translational research program aimed at mapping and manipulating immune cell glycosylation in the tumor microenvironment. This research project will involve extensive work with syngeneic mouse models, primary human immune cells and clinical samples. The overall goal is to describe and functionally characterize glycosylated antigens on tumor-associated immune cells that can serve as next-generation targets and biomarkers for tumor immunotherapy.

This position is fully funded for the next five years by a CIHR Project Grant. A competitive salary (in the range of $55,000-$65,000+benefits, depending on experience level) will be offered to the successful candidate. Additional top-up compensation will also be provided to candidates who are able to attract external fellowship funding. The successful candidate will have extensive access to mentorship, professional development, networking and leadership opportunities to help support their career progression. The Williams & Wisnovsky labs are located in the state-of-the-art UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, with full access to all required instrumentation and infrastructure. UBC is located just outside downtown Vancouver with easy access to both the mountains and the ocean.