Jobs

We seek candidates with a fresh PhD degree to apply bioinformatics skills to decode tRNA modifications in cancers and in neurodegeneration diseases. This candidate should also have basic molecular biology skills and be able to use CRISPR techniques. tRNA modifications are the exciting frontier in the central dogma of genetic information transfer from DNA to RNA to protein, where tRNAs are the adaptors and the modifications in tRNAs control the adaptor activity.

Our position is NIH-funded at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA, which offers intellectual growth and the potential for long-term stability.

For more information, please see the following publications and our website:

Nakano, Y, Gamper, H, McGuigan, H, Maharjan, S, Sun, Z, Yigit, E, Grunberg, S, Krishnan, K, Li, NS, Piccirilli, JA, Kleiner, R, Nichols, N, Hou, YM. (2025) Genome-wide profiling of tRNA modifications by Induro-tRNAseq reveals coordinated changes. Nat Commun, PMID: 39865096; PMCID: PMC11770116; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56348-1.

Maharjan, S, Masuda, I, Hou, YM. (2025) Acid urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (AUPAGE) and Northern analysis. Bio-Protocol. https://doi.org/10.21769/p2788

Fanari, O, Tavakoli, S, Qiu, Y, Makhamreh, A, Nilan, K, Akeson, S, Meseonznik, M, McCormick, CA, Block, D, Gamper, H, Jain, M, Hou, YM, Wanunu, M, Rouhanifard, SH. (2025) Probing enzyme-dependent pseudouridylation using direct RNA sequencing to assess epitranscriptome plasticity in a neuronal cell line. Cell Systems, 2025 Mar 18:101238, doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101238; PMID: 40118059; PMCID:PMC12006983

Masuda, I, McGuigan, H, Maharjan, S., Yamaki, Y, Hou, YM. (2025) Connecting tRNA charging and decoding through the axis of nucleotide modifications at position 37. J. Mol. Biol. Invited review, Mar 18: 169095, doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169095. PMID: 40113011, PMCID:PMC12162217

Szydlo, K, Santos, L, Christian, TW, Maharjan, S, Dorsey, A, Masuda, I, Jia, J, Wu, Yuan, Tan, W, Hou, YM*, Ignatova, Z*. (2025) m6A modification is incorporated randomly into bacterial mRNA without specific functional benefit. *denotes co-corresponding authors. Nucleic Acids Res, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf425, PMID: 40401555; PMCID:PMC12096079

Kimbrough, EM, Nguyen, HA, Li, H, Mattingly, JM, Bailey, NA, Ning, W, Gamper, H, Hou, YM, Gonzalez, RL, Dunham, CM. (2025) An RNA modification prevents extended codon-anticodon interaction from facilitating +1 frameshifting. Nat Commun, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62342-4, PMID: 40789848, PMCID:PMC12340085

Swirski, MI, Tierney, JAS, Alba, MM, Andreev, DE, Aspden, JL, Atkins, JF, Bassani-Sternberg, M, Berry, JJ, Biffo, S., Boris-Lawrie, K, Borodovsky, M, Brierley, I, Brook, M, Brunet, MA, Bujnicki, JM, Caliskan, N, Calviello, L, Carvunis, AR, Cate, JHD, Cenik, C, Chang, KY, Chen, Y, Chothani, S, Choudhary, JS, Clark, PL. Clauwaert, J, Cooley, L, Dassi, E, Dean, K, Dieterich, C, Dikstein, R, Dinman, JD, Dmitriev, SE, Dontsova, OA, Dunham,CM, Eswarapa, SM, Farabaugh, PJ, Faridi, P, Fierro-Monti, I, Firth, AE, Gatfield, D, Gebauer, F, Gelfand, MS, Gray, NK, Green, R, Hill, CH, Hou, YM, Hubner, N, et al., and Baranov, PV. (2025) Translon: a single term for translated regions. Nature Methods, PMID: 40890551, doi: 10.1038/s41592-025-02810-3.

Wang, B, Hoffman, RD, Hou, YM, Li, H. (2025) Structural basis for retron co-option of anti-phage ATPase-nuclease. Nat Struc Mol Biol, PMID: 41174277, doi: 10.1038/s41594-025-01702-6

Email: ya-ming.hou[at]jefferson.edu *Please replace [at] with @ when addressing Emails
Website: https://research.jefferson.edu/labs/researcher/hou-laboratory.html

Please send a cover letter, CV, and contact information of three references to:

Ya-Ming Hou
Professor of Biochemistry and Mol Biology
Email:ya-ming.hou[at]jefferson.edu *Please replace [at] with @ when addressing Emails
Thomas Jefferson University, 233 S. 10th Street, BLSB 220
Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA