Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

Position Detail

We are working on a novel biomaterial, designed for injection in/adjacent to a treatable metastatic lesion and capable of recruiting and reprogramming tumor associated macrophages to enable local and systemic anti-cancer immunity.

Department	Biomedical Engineering
Full Description	We are working on a novel biomaterial, designed for injection in/adjacent to a treatable metastatic lesion and capable of recruiting and reprogramming tumor associated macrophages to enable local and systemic anti-cancer immunity. We hypothesize that local polarization of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) toward an M1 phenotype will create a metastasis microenvironment responsive to cancer immunotherapies. We are fabricating and characterizing TAM-attractive cryogels (TAC) to induce repolarization of macrophages. We characterize macrophage repolarization by TACs in vitro and in ex vivo human breast tumor explants. Additional studies use implanted TACs in a mouse model of breast cancer; we quantify immune responses and changes in tumor progression. A successful candidate will have experience in the fabrication and characterization of polymeric biomaterials. Other necessary skills include mammalian cell culture, manipulation and management of murine models of human cancer and molecular biology / immunology methods for the characterization of anti-cancer immunity, especially macrophage biology. The primary work environment is biomedical engineering, but this is an interdisciplinary project with participants from pharmacology and medicine.
Application Details	This position is expected to be available no earlier than 01 February 2022. Contact postdoc.for.giorgio@vanderbilt.edu for more information and to apply. Applications require a letter of application, CV, and research statement. Also required are three letters of recommendation from senior scientists familiar with your work.
Contact:	Todd Giorgio : postdoc.for.giorgio@vanderbilt.edu : (615) 322-3756
Posted	2021-12-03 19:49:06

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