Postdoctoral Position in Physiology and Regeneration

University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 54,000 - 68,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine invites applications for a Postdoctoral Position in Physiology and Regeneration. The project focuses on how airway epithelium regenerates function after injury, combining stem-cell biology with quantitative physiology.

We seek candidates who are excited to build a lab and contribute to rigorous science; a PhD is required soon, with strong bench skills and willingness to work with mouse and human tissue.

Qualifications

• Command of the scientific process and sound experimental reasoning.
• Solid sterile technique and core bench skills.
• Willingness to learn mouse work (experience helpful, not required).
• Willingness to learn in vitro and ex vivo work with human tissue (experience helpful, not required).
• Familiarity with molecular biology and genetic tools (helpful but not required).

Skills

Scientific reasoning

Sterile technique

Bench skills

Mouse work

In vitro/ex vivo work

Molecular biology familiarity

Education

PhD/MD/MD-PhD in relevant field

Job description

Postdoctoral Position in Physiology and Regeneration

Location: University of Pennsylvania - Perelman School of Medicine

Open Date: Aug 1, 2026

The problem we work on: We study Physiologic Regeneration: whether a tissue that rebuilds the right cells actually recovers the job those cells are supposed to do. After injury, an epithelium can regenerate the correct cell types and still fail to restore coordinated function. Most of the field checks whether the cells come back. We measure whether the function comes back, and we work on why the two so often diverge.

We use the airway surface epithelium because it is constantly injured by the outside world, has to recover to keep the host alive, and crucially, has functions we can measure directly: ion and fluid transport, mucociliary clearance, and antimicrobial killing. Projects pair stem-cell biology with quantitative surface physiology to define how, and whether, function is restored after injury.

Who we're looking for:

We're recruiting people who want to help build a lab and be part of something, not just come to work. Joining a new group is a real risk, and we take that seriously. The traits we actually select for:

• You get genuinely excited by a result you didn't predict and you're disciplined enough to chase what it really means, not what you hoped it meant.
• You're honest about the limits of your own data. You'd rather be accurate than overreach.
• You keep rigorous written records of every experiment, because here the documentation is part of the science, not paperwork after it.
• You're someone people want at the next bench: you share credit, you show up when a colleague's experiment is on the line, and you don't trade in drama.
• You want the work to matter, eventually, to patients, and you're willing to do the slow, careful version to get there.

If this is the environment you've been looking for, we should talk.

Qualifications:

• PhD, MD, or MD/PhD, completed or imminent.
• Command of the scientific process and sound experimental reasoning — the one thing we can't teach quickly.
• Solid sterile technique and core bench skills.
• Willingness to learn and do mouse work (prior experience helpful, not required).
• Willingness to learn and do in vitro and ex vivo work with human tissue (prior experience helpful, not required).
• A familiarity with molecular biology and genetic tools (CRISPR, conditional mice), microbiology (CFU assays), microscopy (confocal, 2P), electrophysiology (Ussing chambers), or large-dataset analysis (scRNA-seq) is helpful but not required.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.