Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Quynh-Thu Le

The Le Laboratory has an opening for a highly motivated, self-driven postdoctoral fellow with some background in molecular or cancer biology. The successful candidate will join the Radiation Therapy Division of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The Le Lab focuses on translational research in head and neck cancer, specifically in the area of tumor microenvironment, immunotherapy, biomarkers and salivary gland stem cells and cancer.

The lab’s current research goals are:

(1) to study in depth the intracellular and extracellular function of Galectin-1 (a hypoxia-induced secreted protein) with regards to its effect on immune cells, treatment response and metastasis;

(2) to develop novel targeted approaches against Galectin-1;

(3) to study the stimulatory effect of radiation on immune suppressive myeloid cells and how best to mitigate it;

(4) to optimize current and develop new approaches to protect normal tissues, specifically salivary stem/progenitor cells and mucosa, from radiation damage (both external beam radiation and targeted radioligand therapy);

(5) to develop novel therapy against salivary gland malignancies, and

(6) to identify, validate and target mutations in putative pathways that can increase radiation resistance in cancer. Projects have the potential for highly informative and very productive findings in terms of publication and innovate clinical implications.