Career Center

A postdoctoral research fellow is sought in the joint laboratory of Dr. Feng Li and Dr. Nobuyo Maeda from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. Our research aims to gain mechanistic insights into how quantitative variants of some genetic factors modulate the severities of cardiovascular complications induced by common disease conditions such as hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and/or hypertension. We utilize mouse models in which the expression of a given gene vary within the physiological range (30%-300%), and through treating the enhanced disease models with commonly used nutritional/natural substances whose safeties are already well established. One such example is the use of nicotinamide (vitamin B3) for the prevention of preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, modeled by a hypermorph of the Edn1 gene encoding Endothelin1. The other is a high-dose oral cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) for the prevention of diabetic cardiomyopathy and diabetic nephropathy, the severities of which are profoundly affected by the quantitative variants of the Elmo1 (Engulfment and Cell Motility) gene. Specific research topics for the fellow include, but not limited to, (1) the role of vitamins in enhancing cellular antioxidant defense systems such as those involving Nef2l2 (coding for NRF2, nuclear factor 2), and (2) the relationships between the quantitative variants in the expression of Elmo1 and the severities of hypertension associated cardiovascular/kidney disease.

Candidates should demonstrate high motivation and enthusiasm for research in medical science. Beneficial to have experience with molecular genetics mouse experiments.