Postdoctoral research positions are available immediately in the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington DC (http://www.nrl.navy.mil/).  

NRL is the Department of Defense’s (DoDs) corporate laboratory for the Navy and Marine Corps. The Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering works at the interface of materials, chemistry, biology, biophysics and materials science to solve critical problems of importance to the Navy and DoD.

Position 1. Synthetic Biology and Interfacial Catalysis

Project Description:  When enzymes are displayed at a nanoparticle interface in a controlled and homogeneous manner, in many cases they display substantially enhanced catalytic activity. We are interested in understanding the mechanisms by which enzyme activity is altered and enhanced at this nanoparticle interface and learning how to exploit this. We are particularly interested in designing and assembling totally artificial enzyme-based biosynthetic pathways on nanoparticles in vitro where the overall catalytic flux through the system can be expected to be greatly enhanced by what appears to be channeling behavior.  This approach represents an important and complementary way of achieving biocatalysis for synthetic biology that is still extremely underutilized.

This position is at the interface of biology and materials and focuses on creating new biocataltyic enzyme-based nanomaterials with emergent properties.Candidates desired experience to include a PhD in a related biological discipline such as enzymology, molecular biology, or biochemistry, with some combination of experience in cloning and recombinant DNA technology, enzymatic assays, fluorescence, bacterial-eukaryotic cell expression and analysis, biosensing, and synthetic biology. Experience with nanoparticles/nanomaterials and FRET are a plus.

Representative publications:

• Vranish, J.N., Ancona, M.G., Oh, E., Susumu, K., Lasarte-Aragones, G., Breger, J.C., Walper, S.A., Medintz, I.L.   Enhancing Coupled Enzymatic Activity by Colocalization on Nanoparticle Surfaces: Kinetic Evidence for Directed Channeling of Intermediates.  ACS Nano 12, 7911-7926 (2018).
• Samanta, A., Breger, J.C., Susumu, K., Oh, E., Walper, S.A., Bassim, N., Medintz, I.L.   DNA-Nanoparticle Composites Synergistically Enhance Organophosphate Hydrolase Enzymatic Activity. ACS Applied Nano Materials 1, 3091-3097 (2018).
• Alves, N.J., Moore, M., Johnson, B.J., Dean, S.N., Turner, K.B., Medintz, I.L., Walper, S.W.  Environmental Decontamination of a Chemical Warfare Simulant Utilizing a Membrane Vesicle-Encapsulated Phosphotriesterase. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10, 15712-15719 (2018).
• Vranish, J.N., Ancona, M.G., Walper, S.A., Medintz, I.L.  Pursuing the Promise of Enzymatic Enhancement with Nanoparticle Assemblies. Langmuir 34, 2901-2925 (2018).
• Diaz, S.A., Sen, S., Boeneman Gemmill, K., Brown, C.W. III., Oh, E., Susumu, K., Stewart, M.H., Breger, J.C., Aragones, G.L., Field, L.D., Deschamps, J.R., Kral, P., Medintz, I.L.  Elucidating Surface Ligand-Dependent Kinetic Enhancement of Proteolytic Activity at Surface-Modified Quantum Dots. ACS Nano 11, 5884-5896 (2017).
• Ding, S., Cargill, A.A., Medintz, I.L., Claussen, J.C.  Increasing the Activity of Immobilized Enzymes with Nanoparticle Conjugation. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 34, 242-250 (2015). 
• Breger, J.C., Ancona, M.G., Walper, S.A., Oh, E., Susumu, K., Stewart, M.H., Deschamps, J.R., Medintz, I.L. Understanding How Nanoparticle Attachment Enhances Phosphotriesterase Kinetic Efficiency. ACS Nano 8, 8491-8503 (2015).

Position 2. Actuatable-Sensing Nanobioconjugates

Description:  The project, at the intersection of nanoscience and neuroscience, is aimed at the development of actuatable nanomaterial-based bioconjugates for the control of cellular membrane potential. The successful candidate will possess a multidisciplinary skill set including proficiency in the following:  cell culture (neuronal cell culture experience is desired but not required), quantitative cellular imaging, fluorescence and/or confocal microscopy and biophysics. A strong background and documented experience in molecular and cellular biology is essential. Our laboratory utilizes various nanomaterials (quantum dots, gold nanoparticles), molecular biology, protein and peptide engineering, FRET and cell biology to understand how to implement functional nanobioconjugates at the biotic/abiotic interface for the purposes of cellular labeling, imaging and sensing. This position presents an opportunity to work with a highly interdisciplinary group to create new types of nanomaterial-based sensors.

Representative publications:

• Efros AL, Delehanty JB, Huston AL, Medintz IL, Barbic M, Harris TD. Evaluating the potential of using quantum dots for monitoring electrical signals in neurons. Nat Nanotechnol. 13:278-288. (2018)
• Sangtani A, Petryayeva E, Wu M, Susumu K, Oh E, Huston AL, Lasarte-Aragones G, Medintz IL, Algar WR, Delehanty JB. Intracellularly  Actuated Quantum Dot-Peptide-Doxorubicin Nanobioconjugates for Controlled Drug Delivery via the Endocytic Pathway. Bioconjug Chem. 29:136-148 (2018)
• Sangtani A, Nag OK, Field LD, Breger JC, Delehanty JB. Multifunctional nanoparticle composites: progress in the use of soft and hard nanoparticles for drug delivery and imaging. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2017 doi: 10.1002/wnan.1466. (2017)
• Nag OK, Stewart MH, Deschamps JR, et al. Quantum Dot-Peptide-Fullerene Bioconjugates for Visualization of in Vitro and in Vivo Cellular Membrane Potential. ACS Nano. 11:5598-5613 (2017)

Position 3. Machine Learning

Researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are currently seeking post-doctoral candidates with a demonstrated expertise in interfacing machine learning capabilities with biological applications. Successful candidates will have demonstrated proficiency in programming languages such as R and Python, with preference toward candidates with a strong background in data processing and analysis of libraries, including but not limited to Pandas and Dpylr. Experience in widely-used machine and deep learning libraries such as Sci-Kit Learn, Caret, Keras, and PyTorch is preferable for building models for examination of biological problems at the NRL. Projects will largely focus on biological data sets such as DNA and protein sequences as well as large mass spectrometry data sets, therefore, some prior experience or knowledge in these areas would be desirable.

Representative publications:

• Bilal, M., Oh, E., Liu, R., Breger, J.C., Medintz, I.L., Cohen, Y. Bayesian Network Resource for Meta-Analysis: Cellular Toxicity of Quantum Dots. Small 15, 1900510 (2019).
• Oh, E., Liu, R., Nel, A., Boeneman Gemmill, K., Bilal, M., Cohen, Y., Medintz, I.L. Meta-Analysis of Cellular Toxicity for Cadmium Containing Quantum Dots. Nature Nanotechnology 11,479-486 (2016).

Stipend: $83,398 annually with health benefits plus travel allotment. The position is administered through the National Research Council (https://www.nrl.navy.mil/careers/post-doc/nrc/) or the American Society for Engineering Education (https://www.nrl.navy.mil/careers/post-doc/asee). NRL is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants must be US Citizens or US Permanent Residents at time of application. 

These positions are outside of the NIH.

Point of Contact:
Igor L. Medintz Ph.D (ST)
Senior Scientist for Biosensors and Biomaterials
Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Code 6907
Washington D.C., 20375 USA
Email: Igor.medintz@nrl.navy.mil