A postdoctoral position is available focused on medicinal chemistry optimization of small molecule inhibitors of non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases with potential for development as therapeutics for myeloid leukemia. The position requires a recent Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry and an interest in medicinal chemistry/drug development. The incumbent will have an opportunity to gain experience with methods for inhibitor analog characterization including surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis of small molecule binding kinetics to kinase protein targets, in vitro kinase activity assays, protein crystallization and X-ray diffraction for structure determination, and cell-based assays for anti-leukemia efficacy evaluation in vitro. Synthetic organic chemistry/medicinal chemistry optimization will be supervised by Dr. Prema Iyer, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Salk Hall. Analog characterization using biochemical, structural, and cell-based approaches will be supervised by Dr. Thomas Smithgall, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine.

Qualifications or Expectations:

• Experience with or willingness to learn techniques associated with chemical biology and preclinical drug development are preferred
• Position requires a Ph.D. or equivalent degree in chemistry, biochemistry or pharmacology and experience with synthetic organic chemistry and analytical methods; recent chemistry Ph.D. graduates are welcome to apply

Opportunities Available:

• Incumbent will have access to Health Science career development office resources
• Opportunities for travel to national and international conferences to present data
• Opportunities to author and co-author publications related to the research in leading chemical biology journals
• Opportunity to prepare grant submission for independent career development funding

Duties or Responsibilities:

• Apply contemporary methods of synthetic organic chemistry to generate analogs of small molecule kinase inhibitors and perform standard quality control assessment via LC/MS and NMR
• Assess small molecule interactions with kinase targets via biophysical and structural biology approaches
• Maintain careful laboratory records of all procedures and experimental results
• Prepare results for presentations and publications and engage with other team members for lab meeting presentations
• Test small molecule kinase inhibitor potency and efficacy using in vitro kinase assays and cell-based assays

For more info about this position, visit:http://www.mmg.pitt.edu/person/thomas-e-smithgall

Application Instructions:

To apply, visit join.pitt.edu and search using the requisition number 22007870 in the keyword field.