Posting Description

RESEARCH SCIENTIST 2, Biological Engineering-Synthetic Biology Center-Weiss Lab, to join an interdisciplinary research lab seeking to create integrated biological systems capable of autonomously performing tasks related to the activities of therapeutic agents for a variety of applications, including immunotherapy.  Will participate in government- and corporate-sponsored research in mammalian synthetic biology, including genetically encoded therapies that perform cell type classification and conditionally administer appropriate therapeutic molecules.  These mammalian genetic circuits will sense cell state, including miRNA levels, and implement multi-input logic regulating the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Genetic circuits will be encoded on RNA replicons and distinguish between cell types such as lung cancer and T cells. Cell type identification will be based on determining an optimal combination of low and high miRNAs present or absent in the relevant cell types. Another level of control will be based on externally-administered small molecules that modulate the stability of regulatory RNA binding proteins. Will also engineer subgenomic promoters of RNA replicons for optimized tandem expression of constitutive and small molecule-regulated payloads in cancer and immune cells.