Applications are invited for 2 tenure-track assistant professor positions in the newly established Center for Membrane Biology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, with appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The new faculty members will join an interactive group of interdepartmental faculty with established programs focused on membrane structure/function and will develop independent research programs on current aspects of membrane biology.

Successful applicants will receive a competitive salary and start-up package of research funds and newly remodeled laboratory and office space. Research areas of special interest include membrane protein expression, insertion and folding, lipid function, membrane protein crystallography, and structure/function of G-protein coupled receptors, ligand-activated channels, multi-drug efflux systems, and other receptors, channels and transport proteins.

Complete curriculum vitae, statement of research plans, representative publications, and names of 3 references should be submitted to:

UPDATE: The CMB has completed it's current search and hired 3 new faculty members. A search for 1 more faculty member is scheduled to begin Summer 2007. .

TWO POST-DOCTORAL POSITIONS AVAILABLE (SPUDICH LAB):

New positions are available for post-doctoral fellows interested in sensory receptor structure/function and signal transduction mechanisms.

STUDIES OF PHOTOTAXIS RECEPTORS AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION IN CHLAMYDOMONAS. The general focus in the lab is on the microbial rhodopsins, a large and diverse family of photoactive, 7-transmembrane-helix, retinal proteins found in haloarchaea, proteobacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi and algae. In particular two function as photosensors for Chlamydomonas reinhardtii phototaxis (see Sineschechov et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 99, 8689-8694. 2002). We would like a molecular cell biologist to join our group to work on the Chlamydomonas sensory rhodopsins.

MICROBIAL RHODOPSIN CRYSTALLOGRAPHY. A position is also available for a post-doctoral fellow interested in sensory receptor structure/function and signal transduction mechanisms pursued by crystallographic approaches. We are using lipid cubic phase as well as more conventional crystallization methods to obtain X-ray structures of members of the diverse family of rhodopsins in microorganisms (for the structure of sensory rhodopsin II, see Leucke et al. Science. 293:1499-1503. 2001. & Spudich & Luecke Curr Opin Struct Biol. 12:540-546. 2002).

Both positions: Annual salary in the 30’s, depending on experience. For more information, please contact: Professor John Spudich, Director, Center for Membrane Biology, University of Texas at Houston.

Interested applicants please send a CV and names of 3 individuals willing to write letters of recommendation via email to the director: John.L.Spudich@uth.tmc.edu