Duke University Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases

3318 0The Surana lab has just started at Duke University School of Medicine, and we are looking for energetic and motivated postdoctoral fellows that are interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying host–commensal–immune interactions. The Surana laboratory innovatively integrates gnotobiotic mouse models, microbiology, immunology, and bioinformatics to tackle medically relevant questions. We have recently developed a novel approach of microbe–phenotype triangulation that facilitates identification of specific bacteria within the microbiota that are causally related to a phenotype of interest (Surana and Kasper. Nature. 2017; 552: 244–247). In the course of this work, we identified a new bacterial species that protects against colitis as well as several organisms that induce host expression of a critical antimicrobial peptide. Ongoing work in the laboratory is focused on understanding these host–bacterial interactions from both the host (i.e., elucidating the immunological mechanism) and bacterial perspectives (i.e., identifying the necessary bacterial factors). There are also additional projects available that use already collected human samples to explore the role of the microbiome in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis.

 Position Requirements: 
 If interested, please send a statement of research interests, CV, and names of 3 references to neil.surana@duke.edu.

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