Bergwitz Lab Job Openings

Undergraduate research: Fall 2019 - Summer 2020

We are recruiting one or two motivated undergraduate students to participate in ongoing research using genetically modified mice and/or fruit flies. Students will learn the collection and processing of blood and tissue samples and common laboratory techniques such as cell culture, immunoblot and quantitative RT-PCR analysis. They will be provided written protocols and one-on-one instruction to conduct a small project on their own using these techniques.

Prerequisites:

The ideal candidate is a sophomore or junior who has some laboratory experience and is able to join for a full-time internship during the summer and able to commit 10-12 hrs./week during the semester.

Postdoctoral fellowship:

immediately

Salary according to NIH guidelines by the section’s NIH-T32 grant is available for initially two years and requires US-citizenship or permanent residency (green card).

We are currently pursuing three main lines of research:

1) Clinical research to define markers of disease progression and response to therapy for HHRH, with the long-term goal is to conduct trials for innovative therapies of hypophosphatemic rickets, osteomalacia, nephrocalcinosis and myopathy.

2) Basic research using conditional knockout mouse models that develop renal calcifications and hypophosphatemic myopathy, and a Drosophila model to study the role of dietary phosphate on longevity to better understand endocrine and metabolic effects of phosphate.

3) Basic research to understand the role of genes identified in a Drosophila genome-wide RNAi knockdown screen involved in phosphate-signaling using Drosophila and murine models.

Prerequisites:

The ideal candidate has a strong interest in basic research, and at least 5 years of laboratory experience with work in signal transduction, phosphate homeostasis and/or the mentioned animal models.