Postdoc position to study inter-organ communication

Posted by jabosch, on 15 July 2025

Job type:

Location: Salt Lake City

Closing Date: 31 December 2026

The Bosch Lab at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City is recruiting postdocs to work on projects related to inter-organ communication. Most projects are “wet” and use Drosophila genetics. Our dry lab projects use protein structure prediction tools (e.g. AlphaFold) and work with Drosophila and human protein data. If interested, send an email to Justin Bosch (jabosch@genetics.utah.eu) with your CV and a short statement of research interests past and future.

See our lab website for information on research projects available for post-docs:
https://www.boschlab.com/research

Lab summary:

Our lab studies inter-organ communication via proteins in blood circulation (e.g. hormones). We are interested in answering long-standing questions such as:

· Where do circulating proteins come from and where do they go? (i.e. cell-types)

· Which proteins mediate inter-organ communication?

· What is the binding specificity of inter-organ molecules? (e.g. hormones)

By mapping protein networks between organs, discovering novel circulating factors, and applying new approaches to well-studied hormones, we aim to understand basic mechanisms of inter-organ communication, improve disease diagnosis, and identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers for human diseases.

We use a combination of experimental and computational tools, including protein proximity labeling (e.g. TurboID) to map the origins and destinations of blood proteins, mass spectrometry of blood plasma, in-silico biomolecular interaction screens (e.g. AlphaFold), and genome engineering tools (e.g. CRISPR) to visualize and perturb candidate inter-organ factors. For in-vivo experiments, we use Drosophila, a model animal with human-like organ systems and precise tissue-specific genetic tools.

Salary: $60,000-65,000/yr

Closing Date: 31 December 2026

Scientific fields: Cell biology, Computational and systems biology, Development and disease, Growth control, Metabolism and physiology, Homeostasis and aging, Signalling

Model systems: Drosophila, Human, Cell culture

Duration: Permanent

Minimum qualifications: PhD in biology. Preferably in area of molecular, cellular, structural, genetic, or proteomics. Preferably with Drosophila experience or protein structure prediction.

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