News announcement

The Respiratory Functional Genomics Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School aims to determine the function of genes identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in respiratory diseases, including asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) through integrative biology approaches.

The primary goal of our research is to annotate the non-coding GWAS variants to the disease genes through inter-disciplinary collaborations and characterize function of these novel diseases’ genes in vitro cell models and ex vivo lung organoid models as well as in vivo disease-relevant mouse models. We are interested in how these novel GWAS genes participate in lung epithelial injury/repair process, modulate lipid and glucose metabolism and determine innate immune response in airway and alveolar epithelial cells as well as in mesenchymal niche cells through intrinsically signaling and cross-cell communications. Through a series of integrative and cross-functional work, we aim to identify novel pathways contributing disease susceptibility and progression as novel drug targets for treatments in patients with pulmonary conditions.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a Harvard Medical School affiliated institution, with over 1000 principal investigators. The Channing Division of Network Medicine is a research division within the Department of Medicine whose goal is to define the etiology and reclassify complex disease using network-, function- and systems-based approaches. 

Postdoctoral candidates with solid knowledge and strong skills related to gene regulation, CRISPR editing, chromatin interaction, epithelial biology, organoid models, cellular metabolism and/or mouse models as well as strong motivation to work in a dynamic and challenging research area are strongly encouraged to apply. We also encourage applications from candidates with combined skills in molecular biology and NGS data analysis.

Please submit inquires and applications including CV, the names of three references, and a cover letter to Dr. Zhou, Associate Professor in Medicine, Director of the Functional Genomics Laboratory: rexiz@channing.harvard.edu. See more information in https://gwas2bio.bwh.harvard.edu.