Postdoctoral positions are immediately available in the laboratory of Dr. Hongkuan Fan in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina.
The group of Dr. Fan has been focusing on understanding of neurovascular dysfunction in sepsis and Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, we focus on the role of pericytes in vascular dysfunction results in altered blood brain barrier permeability and cerebral blood flow. The decrease of cerebral blood flow has been believed as major contribution to dementia and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Our research will not only advance understanding of the mechanistic questions on pericyte function but also provide clinical relevant strategies to target pericyte for therapy. We use a range of complementary methods including molecular and cellular biology, advance imaging technology (two photon microscopy), and mouse genetic models to address these questions. Recently, we demonstrated that transcription factor Fli-1 is elevated in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and suppression of Fli-1 mitigate AD development (Li et. al. 2022, Molecular Therapy), lncRNA Neat-1 levels were upregulated in neuron in an animal model of sepsis and Neat-1 binds with hemoglobin subunit regulating synapsis formation (Wu et. al. 2022, Molecular Therapy). Currently, we are developing multiple projects to fill in the key gaps in neurovascular research field. These works are supported by NIH R35 and R01 funding.
The candidate should be highly motivated with a recent Ph.D. degree and a solid background and skills in immunology, vascular biology, or neuroscience. Experience in mouse surgery is preferred.