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Postdoctoral research on molecular and physiological basis of circadian-metabolic cross-talk

Postdoctoral positions are available in the laboratory of Dr. Shogo Sato in the Department of Biology, Texas A&M University (https://www.bio.tamu.edu/faculty-page-shogo-sato/). Our lab chases answers for how the biological circadian system programs metabolic and epigenetic functions, and brings the mounting evidence up to the translational and practical levels. We ultimately aim to develop novel approaches to promote health and reverse metabolic diseases, cancer, and aging through metabolic and epigenetic activation of the circadian clock functions.

During the early stage of our lab, we will intensively focus on;

1) determining how the circadian clocks are implicated in the functions of different types of stem cells

2) identifying exercise-related metabolites that entrain the circadian clock and metabolic rhythms

3) developing an in vivo targeting clock gene activation system

[Research keywords]

Circadian biology; Exercise biology; Stem cell biology; Biological clocks; Metabolism; Epigenetics; Metabolic diseases; Aging; Cancer; Epigenetic therapy

For more information, please see the following publications;

1. Sato, S.*, Hishida, T.*, Kinouchi, K.*, Hatanaka, F., Li, Y., Nguyen, Q., Chen, Y., Wang, P.H., Kessenbrock, K., Li, W., Belmonte, J.C.I., Sassone-Corsi, P. (under review) The circadian clock CRY1 regulates pluripotent stem cell identity. *contributed equally.
2. Sato, S.*, Dyar, K.*, Treebak, J.T.*, Jepsen, S.L., Ehrlich, A.M, Ashcroft, S.P., Trost, K., Kunzke, T., Prade, V.M., Small, L., Basse, A.L., Schönke, M., Chen, S., Samad, M., Baldi, P., Barres, R., Walch, A., Moritz, T., Holst, J.J., Lutter, D., Zierath, J.R., Sassone-Corsi, P. (2022) Atlas of exercise metabolism reveals time-dependent signatures of metabolic homeostasis. Cell Metab 34, 329-345 *contributed equally.
3. Sato, S., Basse, A.L., Schönke, M., Chen, S., Samad, M., Altıntaş, A., Laker, R.C., Dalbram, E., Barrès, R., Baldi, P., Treebak, J.T., Zierath, J.R., Sassone-Corsi, P. (2019) Time of exercise specifies the impact of muscle metabolic pathways and systemic energy homeostasis. Cell Metab 30, 92-110.
4. Sato, S.*, Parr, E.B.*, Devlin, B.L., Hawley, J.A., Sassone-Corsi, P. (2018) Human Metabolomics reveal daily variations under nutritional challenges specific to serum and skeletal muscle. Mol Metab 16, 1-11. *contributed equally.
5. Sato, S.*, Solanas, G.*, Peixoto, F.O.*, Bee, L., Symeonidi, A., Schmidt, M.S., Brenner, C., Masri, S., Benitah, S.A., Sassone-Corsi, P. (2017) Circadian reprogramming in the liver identifies metabolic pathways of aging. Cell 170, 1-12. *contributed equally.

[Qualification]

1. Applicants should hold a Ph.D. (or M.D./Ph.D., M.D.)
2. Team-players, and motivated, enthusiastic and cooperative talents
3. Applicants with any research backgrounds are welcome but should be interested in circadian biological research
4. Experience in biochemical, molecular biological analyses using small rodents and cell culture is preferred

[Salary, Benefits]

1. Salary (stipend) will be paid according to TAMU and NIH guidelines (see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-21-049.html).
2. Benefits including health insurance will be covered according to TAMU guideline.

Please send 1) a cover letter and CV including names and contact information of two/three references, and 2) a summary of previous (current) research and future research interest (1-2 pages) to Shogo Sato (shogo.sato@bio.tamu.edu).

Please feel free to contact me and ask any questions.

Shogo Sato, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Center for Biological Clocks Research, Department of Biology

Texas A&M University

shogo.sato@bio.tamu.edu

4-year NSF funded postdoctoral position in the Merlin lab
Molecular bases underlying photoperiodism in monarch butterflies

The Merlin lab is seeking a postdoctoral associate to work on a newly funded project that investigates the mechanisms underlying photoperiodism in monarch butterflies. This project extends on our findings showing that photoperiodic and circadian clock regulation of the vitamin A pathway in the brain mediates seasonal responsiveness (Iiams et al., PNAS, 2019), and seeks to characterize the role of vitamin A in either the production of a photoperiodic photoreceptor or seasonal transcriptional reprogramming. The project will utilize contemporary techniques and approaches, including CRISPR/Cas9 for the production of loss-of-function mutants and various state-of-the-art high-throughput sequencing technologies (bulk and single-cell RNA-seq).
Interested candidates should have a Doctoral degree (PhD, MD, MD/PhD or equivalent) and background in molecular biology and bioinformatics. Candidates will be given the opportunity to also develop their own projects to establish their independent career.

Application Instructions: Interested candidates should submit the following documents by email to cmerlin@bio.tamu.edu and applyat https://jobs.tamu.edu/ with job requisition id R-054267:
(1) A cover letter outlining your research interests and career goals.
(2) A CV that includes research experience, technical and soft skills, and a list of publications.
(3) The contact information of three professional references. Reference letters are not required at this stage, but will be during the final selection process.
Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

About the lab and Texas A&M University: Our lab offers a dynamic, collegial and multicultural environment that fosters interactions, scientific discussions, and collaborations. We are affiliated with the Department of Biology (https://bio.tamu.edu), the Program of Genetics (https://genetics.tamu.edu), the Program of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (https://eeb.tamu.edu), and the Program of Neuroscience (https://tamin.tamu.edu). We are also part of the Center for Biological Clocks Research (https://clocks.tamu.edu), which brings together ten labs working on biological rhythms within the department (Bell-Pedersen, Earnest, Hardin, Jones, Keene, Li, Menet, Merlin, Sato, and Zoran). Texas A&M is a Tier 1 research institution that ranks 14th in the US for research expenditure with more than $1.131 billion in 2020. Texas A&M hosts many state-of-the-art research facilities, including a genomics core and a High-Performance Research Computing core. Bryan-College Station, home of Texas A&M, is a vibrant, dynamic, and rapidly growing community that offers cultural diversity, entertainment, job opportunities, and overall quality of life. Located in the heart of the Houston-Dallas-Austin triangle, the region offers the modern amenities of a big city with a warm, small-town charm, and low cost of living, making it an ideal place to live.

The Menet lab is seeking two postdoctoral associates to work on two newly funded projects that investigate the mechanisms underlying rhythmic gene expression in the mouse.

One project extends on our findings showing that the 24-hour rhythm of food intake drives a large fraction of the mouse liver cycling transcriptome independently of the liver circadian clock (Greenwell et al., Cell Reports, 2019), and seeks to characterize the role of mTOR and other signaling pathways into how rhythmic systemic signals drive rhythmic transcription and contribute to the rhythmic regulation of various cellular, physiological, and behavioral processes in the mouse.

The second project stems from our molecular characterization of how the core circadian transcription factor CLOCK:BMAL1 drives rhythmic transcription (Trott and Menet, PLoS Genetics, 2018; Beytebiere et al., Genes & Development, 2019), and seeks to determine how CLOCK:BMAL1 regulates the chromatin environment, nucleosome positioning, and enhancer activity over the 24-hour day.

Both projects utilize contemporary techniques and approaches, including various state-of-the-art and in-house- designed high-throughput sequencing technologies. More details about our projects can be found on our website https://www.menetlab.com.

Interested candidates should have a Doctoral degree (PhD, MD, MD/PhD or equivalent) and background in molecular and cellular biology. While experience in bioinformatics is not required, the successful candidates will be expected to learn bioinformatics and coding in R or other languages.

Application Instructions: Interested candidates should submit the following documents by email to menet@bio.tamu.edu:

(1) a cover letter outlining your research interests and career goals.

(2) a CV that includes research experience, technical and soft skills, and a list of publications.

(3) the contact information of three professional references. Reference letters are not required at this stage, but will be during the final selection process.

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the two positions are filled.

About the lab and Texas A&M University: Our lab offers a dynamic, collegial and multicultural environment that fosters interactions, scientific discussions, and collaborations. We are affiliated with the Department of Biology (https://bio.tamu.edu) and the Program of Genetics (https://genetics.tamu.edu). We are also part of the Center for Biological Clocks Research (https://clocks.tamu.edu), which brings together ten labs working on biological rhythms (Bell-Pedersen, Earnest, Hardin, Jones, Keene, Li, Menet, Merlin, Sato, and Zoran). Texas A&M is a Tier 1 research institution that ranks 14th in the US for research expenditure with more than $1.131 billion in 2020. Texas A&M hosts many state-of-the-art research facilities, including a genomics core, a High-Performance Research Computing core, a rodent phenotyping core, and metabolomics and mass spectrometry cores. Bryan-College Station, home of Texas A&M, is a vibrant, dynamic, and rapidly growing community that offers cultural diversity, entertainment, job opportunities, and overall quality of life. Located in the heart of the Houston-Dallas-Austin triangle, the region offers the modern amenities of a big city with a warm, small-town charm, and low cost of living, making it an ideal place to live.

Postdoctoral associate, graduate student, research assistant positions are available in the laboratory of Dr. Wanhe Li in the Department of Biology, Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University (https://www.bio.tamu.edu/faculty-page-wanhe-li/). Our research program links sleep and emotion studies in model organisms. Specifically, we exploit chronic social isolation to study the etiology of sleep loss and other adverse health conditions under chronic stress¹.

We are focusing on:

1. Analyzing genetic pathways underlying chronic social isolation-induced sleep loss and determining how circadian, seasonal, disease and age factors influence these pathways.
2. Identifying neural substrates and circuits underlying social isolation-induced sleep loss. These neural substrates and circuits will reveal (a) principles of sleep and wakefulness control; (b) molecular and circuit mechanisms underlying the passage of time during chronic social isolation.
3. Exploring chronic social isolation-induced metabolic changes and its associated health outcomes.
4. Developing a genetically tractable animal model to study the reciprocal relationship between chronic stress and the progression of tumor.

Research Keyword

Chronic stress, chronic social isolation, sleep and wakefulness regulation, metabolism, ageing, chronic diseases, tumorigenesis, circadian biology, neural circuits, genetics, and genomics.

For postdoctoral positions, applicants are expected to hold a Ph.D. and/or M.D. (or equivalent doctoral degrees) at the start date. Applicants with any research background are welcome to apply. Prior experience in biochemistry/molecular biology, neurogenetics/genomics, imaging/optics, sleep/circadian biology, and Drosophila tumorigenesis models is preferred. Outstanding candidates should have a strong interest in sleep and circadian biology research and a strong interest in developing research skills using multidisciplinary approaches. Our research will train broad skills in molecular biology, Drosophila genetics, genomics and bioinformatics, metabolic analyses, instrumentation, high throughput behavioral analyses, immunohistochemical techniques, and in vivo functional imaging using two-photon microscopy.

Texas A&M University, one of the US’s largest public institutions is located at College Station, Texas, which is within easy driving distance to Houston, Austin, Dalla and San Antonio. College Station, as a high-tech research area, has a rapidly growing population and has been ranked No. 3 on Forbes’ list of the best small U.S. places for business and careers and one of the nation’s top 10 cities for families.

Please email wli01@tamu.edu with a cover letter, CV and contact information for 2-3 references.

Competitive salary and benefits, including health insurance and retirement benefit, will be offered according to Texas A&M University and NIH guidelines.

1. Li W., Wang Z., Syed S., Lyu C., Lincoln S., O’Neil J., Nguyen A., Feng I., Young M.W. (2021) Chronic social isolation signals starvation and reduces sleep in Drosophila. Nature, 597(7875):239-244

Highlighted in Levine J.D. (2021) Chronically lonely flies overeat and lose sleep. News and Views, Nature

The Jones Lab at Texas A&M University (www.jones-lab.org) is hiring a postdoctoral researcher to work on a project investigating circadian (near-24 h) output circuits. Our primary research focus is understanding the genes, neurons, and circuits that regulate differently-timed circadian rhythms in behavior and physiology in mammals. To study these questions, we use a variety of cutting-edge techniques including neuromodulation (optogenetics, chemogenetics), imaging (in vivo and ex vivo), neurogenetics (CRISPR/Cas9), neuroanatomy (circuit tracing), and complex behavioral analysis (machine learning). Candidates will have the opportunity to be trained on these and other methods, to learn circadian neuroscience, and to develop their own research directions. Candidates must have (or will have by the time they start in the lab) a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in neuroscience, biology, or a related field and a strong research background including first-author publication(s) or preprint(s). We are especially interested in candidates with expertise in systems neuroscience, circadian biology, and/or programming, but this is not required.

If you are interested in joining our lab, please send the following to jjones@bio.tamu.edu and apply here:

• A 1-2 page cover letter detailing your research experience, career goals, and how training in the Jones Lab would help you achieve those goals
• A CV that includes research experience, technical skills, and a list of publications, and
• The contact information for up to three references.

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

The Jones Lab is housed in the Department of Biology (https://bio.tamu.edu) and is affiliated with the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience (https://tamin.tamu.edu) and the Center for Biological Clocks Research (https://clocks.tamu.edu). Texas A&M is therefore an ideal environment in which to study circadian neuroscience. Texas A&M University is a Tier 1 research institution located in College Station, TX. The Bryan-College Station area offers cultural diversity, entertainment, job opportunities, and an excellent quality of life. Located in the heart of the Houston-Dallas-Austin triangle, the area offers the modern amenities of a big city with a warm, small-town charm and low cost of living, making it an ideal place to live.

NIH funded post-doctoral position

Conformational changes in clock proteins that keep circadian time

The Hardin lab at Texas A&M University has an immediate opening for a post-doctoral fellow to study molecular mechanisms that control circadian timekeeping and activity rhythms using Drosophila as a model system. These studies will employ biochemical, molecular, genetic and computational tools to determine how conformational changes in PERIOD (PER) and CLOCK (CLK) proteins drive circadian rhythms in transcription and behavior. Qualified candidates must have a PhD in biology/biochemistry or a related field, be able to work as part of an interactive team and possess excellent written and oral communication skills. Preference will be given to recent PhD graduates with experience in molecular biology, protein biochemistry, genetic analysis of gene expression, Drosophila neurogenetics and/or analysis of circadian behavior.

To apply for this position please send the following to phardin@bio.tamu.edu:

• A 1-2 page cover letter describing your research experience and career goals
• A CV that lists your research experience, technical skills and publications
• Contact information for three references

Texas A&M University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability employer.