Postdoctoral Researcher, Biological Design, Hsu Lab

<p><strong>About Arc Institute</strong></p> <p>Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.</p> <p>Unlike academia, our scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof to tackle problems neither could solve alone.</p> <p>Our two Institute Initiatives reflect this model in action:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://arcinstitute.org/virtual-cell-initiative"><strong>Virtual Cell Initiative</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets,&nbsp; accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.</li> <li><a href="https://arcinstitute.org/alzheimers-disease-initiative"><strong>Alzheimer's Disease Initiative</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.</li> </ul> <p>More than 300 Arconauts work together at our Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.</p> <p><strong>About the position</strong></p> <p><a href="https://arcinstitute.org/labs/hsulab">The Hsu Lab</a> is looking for postdoctoral researchers, who are curious, creative and ambitious and share our vision of programming biology and building tangible products that impact everyday lives in the real world. Broadly, we develop technologies for biological engineering and design. Recent work has included bridge recombinases, large serine recombinases, CRISPR systems, and AI-designed molecular systems. Beyond the genome, we aim to modulate physiology through synthetic peptides, microbiome engineering, or rational nutrition. Finally, we merge advances in biology and AI to mine the metagenomic sequence space, enable generative genome design, and build towards a virtual cell.</p> <p>Lately, we have been thinking about the following research frontiers (your innovative ideas could be related, or broadly fit into our thematic interests):</p> <ul> <li>Discovery and engineering of modulators/probes/drug-like molecules for general physiological control and human enhancement (e.g. sleep, appetite, energy etc) by employing in silico, in vitro and/o