Postdoctoral Fellow - Diabetes Research

Join the forefront of groundbreaking research at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, where we're changing lives and making a real difference in the fight against cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Our dedicated and compassionate faculty and staff are driven by a common mission: Contribute to innovative approaches in predicting, preventing, and curing diseases, shaping the future of medicine through cutting-edge research.

A Postdoctoral Fellow position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Sangeeta Dhawan at the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute.  Dr. Dhawan leads an NIH-funded research program at the intersection of epigenetics, developmental programming, and diabetes pathobiology. Her laboratory is uncovering how the molecular programs that establish pancreatic beta-cell identity also determine lifelong resilience or vulnerability to disease. Current projects investigate how disrupted DNA methylation and chromatin regulation can drive genomic instability, senescence, and beta-cell vulnerability in diabetes. A major focus is understanding how beta-cell intrinsic changes can influence their immunogenicity in type 1 diabetes and identifying mechanisms that can be targeted to preserve functional beta-cell mass and prevent disease progression.

The lab integrates innovative genetic mouse models, human islets and pancreas slices, advanced imaging, and epigenomic, single-cell, and spatial biology approaches to uncover fundamental mechanisms of islet development and disease. Dr. Dhawan’s multidisciplinary, NIH funded program offers the opportunity to lead conceptually innovative and high-impact mechanistic research with clear translational relevance to diabetes prevention and therapeutic discovery.

As a successful candidate you will:

·         Conduct research on NIH-funded and other supported projects defining how developmental epigenetic programs regulate beta-cell genomic stability, stress resilience, and immune visibility, and how their disruption contributes to diabetes susceptibility and pathogenesis.

·         Work within a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary environment while developing new research questions and directions.

·         Perform studies using primary human and mouse islets and pancreas tissue, cell-culture based systems, genetic mouse models, and disease models, with molecular biology, single-cell, spatial, imaging, and epigenomic technologies.

·         Design hypothesis-driven studies, independently plan and execute experiments, analyze data, and interpret findings.

·         Communicate research findings through presentations at national and international meetings and publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals.

·         Develop an independent scientific vision and individualized career-development plan.

·         Receive extensive mentorship in manuscript preparation, fellowship and grant writing, and the transition toward research independence. 

·         Contribute to mentoring and training junior researchers, students, and interns.