Join Us!

We're looking for curious people who like hard problems.

 

Every heart cell starts out immature: small, fetal-like, and running on sugar. Before birth it has to switch to burning fat in its mitochondria, build its contractile machinery, and wire up to the nervous system. We want to know how that happens, and what it means for congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy and heart regeneration.

 

What you could work on:

- RNA marks that build the heart's powerhouse: how m6A modifications control mitochondrial ribosomes and where in the cell mRNAs get translated

- The brain-heart connection: how sympathetic nerves tell heart cells when to divide and when to mature

- Programmable RNA editing as therapy: CRISPR-based tools that rewrite single RNA marks to correct disease genes in patient-derived heart cells

 

What you'll learn:

Mouse genetics, human stem cell-derived heart cells and cardiac organoids, CRISPR/dCas13 editing, nanopore direct RNA sequencing, single-cell genomics, and imaging. You'll also work with leading Hopkins collaborators in mitochondrial biology, RNA sequencing and translation.

 

Where our trainees go:

Our students and postdocs lead first-author papers, including in Nature Cardiovascular Research, and present at national meetings. Alumni have moved on to PhD programs at Penn and Hopkins, residency at UCSF, and postdoctoral positions.

 

Who we're looking for:

Postdocs with experience in molecular biology, stem cells, mouse models, RNA biology or computational analysis. If you're excited about fellowship applications and building toward your own independent questions, we'd love to hear from you.

Graduate students in BME, Human Genetics, CMM and related Hopkins programs. Rotations are welcome.

Undergraduate and master's students who want real projects, not just pipetting.

 

How to apply:

Email a short note about what excites you, your CV, and (for postdocs) the names of three references to etampak1@jhmi.edu.