Postdoctoral Fellow - Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy

Join the forefront of groundbreaking research at City of Hope where we're changing lives and making a real difference in the fight against cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Our dedicated and compassionate faculty and staff are driven by a common mission: Contribute to innovative approaches in predicting, preventing, and curing diseases, shaping the future of medicine through cutting-edge research.

The laboratory of Dr. Shoubao Ma at the City of Hope National Medical Center is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our research team.

The Ma Lab is dedicated to advancing the understanding and application of cancer immunology and immunotherapy, with the overarching goal of developing innovative immune-based treatments for cancer and other diseases. Our research integrates fundamental immunology, functional genomics, and translational cell engineering to uncover mechanisms of immune regulation and translate these discoveries into next-generation therapeutics.

As a successful candidate, you will:

Key areas of investigation include:

Molecular and cellular regulation of natural killer (NK) cells.

• We study the mechanisms that control NK cell development, differentiation, activation, and effector function, with a particular emphasis on understanding how NK cells recognize and eliminate malignant cells. By defining the pathways that govern NK cell biology, we aim to identify new strategies to enhance their anti-tumor activity.

Mechanisms of tumor immune evasion.

• Tumors employ diverse mechanisms to escape immune surveillance and resist immunotherapy. Using high-throughput CRISPR-based functional genomics approaches, we systematically identify genes and pathways that enable tumor cells to evade immune attack, providing new targets for therapeutic intervention and combination immunotherapies.

Development of NK cell and CAR-NK cell therapies.

• Building on advances in cellular engineering, we develop and optimize NK cell-based immunotherapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cells. Our work focuses on improving the persistence, potency, trafficking, and safety of engineered NK cells to enhance their effectiveness against hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

Next-generation cell therapy and in vivo immune engineering.

• We are exploring transformative approaches that overcome current limitations of ex vivo cell manufacturing, including the development of in vivo CAR therapies that directly reprogram immune cells within the patient. These next-generation platforms have the potential to increase accessibility, reduce treatment complexity, and expand the therapeutic applications of engineered immune cells.

Your qualifications should include:

• Ph.D. degree in life or biomedical sciences, or a related discipline.

• NK cell development and function.

• Tumor immunology, immunotherapy.

• Ex vivo and/or in vivo CAR NK or CAR T cell engineering.

• CRISPR screening and CRISPR-based gene editing.

• At least one first-author publication in a high-impact journal.

• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English, both written and spoken.

• Strong team orientation and interpersonal skills.

Additional qualifications include:

• You will have the unique possibility to drive research towards a novel cancer therapy at the interface of science and translation to the clinic and publish high-impact journals.

• A commitment to the program for a minimum of three years.

To learn more about our Comprehensive Benefits, please CLICK HERE.

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