Join the Lab
We strongly believe that the mission of every lab should be to provide a great training environment.
We strive to provide the infrastructure that enables our trainees to focus on developing their science and engineering skills, which we achieve with lab tech support for animal model experiments.
We also really focus on teaching our trainees skills in writing and presentations, with an online lab guide to improving these skills, which we constantly update. We don’t believe in pushing our trainees into a faculty career, but instead helping everyone figure out which destination they want most, and then helping them chart that path, whether it’s academia, industry, or other STEM careers.
Available positions
Postdocs
We’re always hiring new postdocs. We encourage trainees from diverse backgrounds to apply, including nanomedicine, genetic medicine, DNA engineering (plasmid cloning; AAVs, etc), organic synthesis, microfluidics, molecular biology, protein engineering, or anything else you think may help create novel nanomedicines and genetic medicines.
PhD students
We usually take 1-2 new PhD students each year. We accept graduate students from many departments, such as Penn graduate groups for Bioengineering, Pharmacology, and Cell & Molecular Biology (which includes Penn’s Gene Therapy & Vaccines program), and we have multiple students from Penn’s Medical Scientist Training Program for MD/PhD students (MSTP). Just apply to any of the above Penn programs, and if you get offered an interview, please reach out to me to chat. Unfortunately, I have no control over who gets to the interview stage, so it is not super helpful to reach out to me before getting to that stage. Best of luck!
Lab techs
We are currently looking for lab techs. Generally we only hire people who can stay at least 2 years, since it takes ~6 months to learn the techniques. Our junior lab techs have gone on to get into PhD and medical programs at Penn, Yale, and other great schools.
How to apply
Please email me with a CV or resume, a description of your interests, and your timeline for when you will finish your prior phase or work and be ready to start with us.
My commitment to team members
I had a crappy PhD experience, and that suffering made me commit to being a devoted advisor.
It is very important to me that they have fun, learn what they are passionate about, and have the resources to get the research done that makes them happy.
I have no set number of papers required for students to graduate or postdocs to get my support to move to their next position. Instead, I believe we should figure out together the number and type of papers to get you to the next career phase you desire, and strategize how to get you there.
I meet with each team member 1-on-1 as often as they want. Nearly every meeting starts with “how can I help?” and ends with “are there any resources you need?” In between is figuring out the science together and who we need to bring in for more assistance. I truly believe STEM is a team sport.
