Staff Scientist

Department

BSD SUR - Minimally Invasive Surgery

About the Department

The Section of Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Chicago is an internationally recognized academic surgical program focused on advancing the care of patients with foregut and esophageal disorders, abdominal wall reconstruction, bariatric surgery, and surgical innovation. Our multidisciplinary research program integrates translational laboratory investigation, preclinical surgical models, human tissue analysis, prospective clinical research, and collaborative engineering approaches to better understand disease mechanisms and improve surgical care.

Job Summary

The Staff Scientist will serve as the scientific lead for a diverse portfolio of translational surgical research. Research activities include mechanistic laboratory investigations, development and execution of preclinical animal models, analysis of human tissue specimens and biospecimens, prospective clinical studies evaluating esophageal physiology and novel diagnostic technologies, surgical innovation, and collaborative research across Surgery, Gastroenterology, Engineering, and other scientific disciplines. The successful candidate will contribute to building sustainable research infrastructure through scientific leadership, mentorship, grant development, and high-impact scholarly productivity.

This at-will position is wholly or partially funded by contractual grant funding which is renewed under provisions set by the grantor of the contract. Employment will be contingent upon the continued receipt of these grant funds and satisfactory job performance.

Responsibilities

• Design, lead, and execute translational research projects focused on foregut disease, esophageal physiology, tissue remodeling, wound healing, surgical innovation, and related gastrointestinal diseases.

• Develop, optimize, and perform preclinical animal models, including large animal surgical models, to investigate disease mechanisms and evaluate novel surgical therapies.

• Design and perform mechanistic laboratory studies using human tissue specimens, biospecimens, molecular biology techniques, histology, immunohistochemistry, microscopy, and other translational laboratory methods.

• Analyze existing tissue repositories and prospectively collected biospecimens to investigate disease mechanisms, tissue remodeling, and translational biomarkers.

• Lead and support prospective clinical research studies evaluating esophageal physiology, reflux diagnostics, novel surgical techniques, medical devices, and patient outcomes.

• Coordinate translational studies integrating clinical data, physiologic testing, imaging, biospecimen collection, and laboratory analyses.

• Collaborate with faculty, research coordinators, engineers, statisticians, and basic scientists on multidisciplinary research initiatives.

• Analyze experimental and clinical datasets using appropriate statistical methods and assist with interpretation of research findings.

• Collaborate on engineering and computational research initiatives involving quantitative image analysis, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence applications when appropriate.

• Prepare manuscripts, abstracts, grant applications, scientific presentations, regulatory submissions, and sponsor progress reports.

• Assist in developing investigator-initiated, foundation, federal, and industry-sponsored research programs.

• Ensure compliance with institutional, IRB, IACUC, biosafety, sponsor, and federal research requirements.

• Develop laboratory protocols, standard operating procedures, and quality assurance processes.

• Assist with establishment and maintenance of laboratory infrastructure, tissue repositories, databases, and research resources.

• Mentor medical students, graduate students, residents, fellows, research staff, and visiting investigators in laboratory, translational, and clinical research methodology.

• Present research findings at institutional, national, and international scientific meetings.

• Contribute to the strategic growth and long-term scientific direction of the Section of Minimally Invasive Surgery. research program.

• Serves as a resource for collecting data and performing analysis. Contributes to facilitating and promoting a research project by providing scientific or intellectual information.

• Reviews laboratory protocols and training on new techniques. Manage complex data sets for research.

• Leads the contributions to scientific writing and publications, including protocols and grants.

• Trains new laboratory pers