The Acharya Lab in the Division of Structural Biology at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) is recruiting for a Postdoctoral Associate.We study structures of viral glycoproteins, their interactions with host molecules and role in viral entry. Working at the interface of basic and translational research, we collaborate with multiple labs in DHVI and beyond to apply insights from structural biology to vaccine design. We have state-of-the-art facilities that include tissue culture labs, FPLCs, X-ray crystallography robots, a biophysics suite that includes a Biacore T200, Octet Red 384, ITC, DSC and a plate reader for absorbance and fluorescence assays, Leica EM GP2 and other equipment for cryo-EM grid preparation. We have regular access to the 22-ID beamline at the Argonne Photon Source for X-ray data collection, as well as to a Titan Krios microscope equipped with a Gatan K3 camera at Duke University for cryo-EM. This position will involve structural determination using high-resolution cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography of viral envelope and fusion proteins, and their complexes with host receptors and antibodies, biophysical and biochemical analyses to complement structural results, and collaborations with virology and immunology labs to understand the functional implications of the structural findings.
