Postdoctoral Research Associate (Stem Cell Biology)

Location: Houston, Texas, United States; occasional weekend and after-hours work may be required for cell culture maintenance, time-sensitive experiments, animal monitoring, or sample processing.

Company

Texas A&M Health is an academic health center comprising colleges, centers, and institutes focused on health education, research, and team-based care.

What you will do

• Conduct independent and collaborative research on human pluripotent stem cell-derived airway and alveolar epithelial differentiation, regional lung epithelial identity, and lung disease modeling.
• Develop, optimize, and perform hPSC maintenance, directed lung differentiation, airway basal cell differentiation, air–liquid interface culture, distal airway/alveolar differentiation, and in vitro disease-modeling experiments.
• Design and execute hypothesis-driven studies involving epithelial cell fate specification, epithelial maturation, hillock-like epithelial cells, regional basal cell identity, fibrosis, and disease-associated remodeling.
• Perform and analyze molecular, cellular, imaging, and functional assays, including flow cytometry, immunostaining, microscopy, qPCR, sequencing sample preparation, and related methods.
• Assist with animal xenograft experiments, tissue and sample collection, downstream analysis, and compliance with approved institutional protocols.
• Analyze and communicate results; maintain research records; troubleshoot protocols; prepare figures, manuscripts, abstracts, progress reports, presentations, and grant-related materials; mentor laboratory personnel; and support laboratory organization, inventory, equipment, sample tracking, data management, and core-facility coordination.

Requirements

• PhD, MD, or equivalent doctoral degree in biology, biomedical sciences, stem cell biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, cancer biology, physiology, or a related field.
• Ability to design, execute, troubleshoot, analyze, and interpret experiments independently and collaboratively.
• Excellent sterile technique and knowledge of biosafety practices, with the ability to learn technically demanding hPSC maintenance and directed lung differentiation protocols.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain accurate and timely research records.
• Ability to analyze, summarize, and communicate research results clearly and prepare figures, manuscripts, abstracts, presentations, and progress-report materials.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively, with excellent verbal and written communication, analytical, organizational, and presentation skills.
• Ability to mentor and support students, research assistants, and laboratory personnel.
• Familiarity with data organization, laboratory inventory management, animal research compliance, and animal model preparation, monitoring, tissue/sample collection, and downstream analysis under approved protocols.

Nice to have

• Experience in stem cell, developmental, epithelial, lung, disease-modeling, cancer, fibrosis, regenerative, organoid, or molecular biology, or animal model research.
• Experience with mammalian or hPSC culture and differentiation, organoid culture, air–liquid interface culture, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence staining, microscopy, qPCR, RNA-seq or single-cell sequencing sample preparation, bioinformatics/data analysis, histology/sample processing, or animal model support.
• Prior experience with manuscript preparation, figure generation, scientific presentations, experimental design, and hypothesis-driven research.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative academic health-center environment grounded in respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, integrity, and selfless service.
• Medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment, flexible spending, and long-term disability insurance, with employer contributions to health and basic life premiums.
• Annual paid holidays, monthly paid sick leave, and paid vacation.
• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
• Free exercise programs, wellness resources, LinkedIn Learning, professional-development support, conference and workshop assistance, educational release time, and tuition assistance.

Hiring process

• Submit complete application data or attach a complete resume; incomplete submissions may be rejected.
• Employment is contingent on credential verification and completion of a criminal history investigation.