Career Center

An NIH-funded position is available in the Watnick Lab (https://paulawatnicklab.com/) at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School for a collegial and motivated postdoctoral fellow seeking to expand their knowledge of the host-commensal intestinal microbe interaction. The successful candidate will join a vibrant research team using genetics, genomics, metabolomics, and proteomics to explore the impact of biological sex and metabolic pathways of intestinal bacteria on host innate immunity and metabolism.  We use invertebrate, vertebrate, and organoid models.

Postdoctoral fellows have appointments both at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and will participate in the activities of the Infectious Diseases Division at BCH and the Department of Microbiology at HMS.

Interested candidates should write to paula.watnick@childrens.harvard.edu.

We aim to create a supportive, diverse, and inclusive environment in which laboratory members are supported in the pursuit of their personal, scientific, and career goals unhindered by bias and microaggressions.  Members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.

To learn more about our recent work, please see:

• Gibson JA, Gebhardt MJ, Santos RE, Dove SL, Watnick PI, Sequestration of a dual function DNA-binding protein by Vibrio cholerae PNAS, 2022. 119(46):e2210115119.
• Jugder BE, Batista JH, Gibson JA, Cunningham PM, Asara JM, Watnick PI, Vibrio cholerae high cell density quorum sensing activates the host intestinal innate immune response. Cell Rep, 2022. 40(12):111368.
• Pace F, Rudolph SE, Chen Y, Bao B, Kaplan D, and Watnick PI, The short-chain fatty acids proionate and butyrate augment adherent-invasive Escherichia coli virulence but repress inflammation in a human intestinal enteroid model of infection. Microbiology Spectrum, 2021.
• Jugder B-E, Kamareddine L, Watnick PI, Microbiota-derived acetate activates intestinal innate immunity via the Tip60 histone acetyltransferase complex, Immunity, 2021. 54(8):1683-1697.e3
• Kamareddine L, Robins WP, Berkey CD, Mekalanos JJ, Watnick PI. The Drosophila Immune Deficiency Pathway Modulates Enteroendocrine Function and Host Metabolism. Cell metabolism. 2018 Sep 4; 28(3): 449-462.e5.

BS and PhD