Job Details

Postdoctoral Position in Physiology and Regeneration

Position Number: 9737927
Location: Philadelphia, United States
Position Type: Medicine - Medical Researcher

Postdoctoral Position in Physiology and Regeneration

Location: University of Pennsylvania - Perelman School of Medicine
Open Date: Aug 01, 2026
Deadline:

The problem we work on: We study Physiologic Regeneration: whether a tissue that rebuilds the right cells actually recovers the job those cells are supposed to do. After injury, an epithelium can regenerate the correct cell types and still fail to restore coordinated function. Most of the field checks whether the cells come back. We measure whether the function comes back, and we work on why the two so often diverge.

We use the airway surface epithelium because it is constantly injured by the outside world, has to recover to keep the host alive, and crucially, has functions we can measure directly: ion and fluid transport, mucociliary clearance, and antimicrobial killing. Projects pair stem-cell biology with quantitative surface physiology to define how, and whether, function is restored after injury.

Who we're looking for: We're recruiting people who want to help build a lab and be part of something, not just come to work. Joining a new group is a real risk, and we take that seriously. The traits we actually select for:

You get genuinely excited by a result you didn't predict and you're disciplined enough to chase what it really means, not what you hoped it meant.
You're honest about the limits of your own data. You'd rather be accurate than overreach.
You keep rigorous written records of every experiment, because here the documentation is part of the science, not paperwork after it.
You're someone people want at the next bench: you share credit, you show up when a colleague's experiment is on the line, and you don't trade in drama.
You want the work to matter, eventually, to patients, and you're willing to do the slow, careful version to get there.

If this is the environment you've been looking for, we should talk.

Qualifications

PhD, MD, or MD/PhD, completed or imminent.
Command of the scientific process and sound experimental reasoning - the one thing we can't teach quickly.
Solid sterile technique and core bench skills.
Willingness to learn and do mouse work (prior experience helpful, not required).
Willingness to learn and do in vitro and ex vivo work with human tissue (prior experience helpful, not required).
A familiarity with molecular biology and genetic tools (CRISPR, conditional mice), microbiology (CFU assays), microscopy (confocal, 2P), electrophysiology (Ussing chambers), or large-dataset analysis (scRNA-seq) is helpful but not required.

Application Instructions
Please first read https://www.viralshahlab.org/

Particularly review how we run the lab and what we expect of one another. Then please send your CV, a short statement of your interests and goals, and a list of references (including your PhD advisor) via interfolio. In your statement, tell us about one result that surprised you and what you did next. We read that part closely.

To apply, visit https://apply.interfolio.com/189959

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.