Description

Mayo Clinic invites applications for an institutionally supported faculty position in Immunology at its Arizona campus. We seek an innovative and collaborative investigator to develop a cutting-edge research program in the field of immune engineering with a focus on immune tolerance and transplantation. The successful candidate will develop and apply novel engineering approaches to reduce or eliminate the need for long-term immunosuppression. Research areas of interest include but not limited to engineering cell-based therapy to promote tolerance, enhancing tolerogenic functions of immune cells, developing and targeting delivery of immunomodulatory biomaterials, and creating biologically relevant or bioinformatic platforms to evaluate engineered immune therapeutics. The candidate is expected to establish an internationally recognized research program while fostering strong collaborations with leading basic scientists, clinician investigators and clinician specialists across Mayo Clinic’s integrated research and clinical enterprise.

Mayo Clinic
With an 83,000-person workforce, Mayo Clinic cares for more than 1.4 million people each year with serious or complex illnesses from all 50 U.S. states and 135 countries. Mayo Clinic is the largest not-for-profit, multidisciplinary academic medical center in the world with over 4,000 physicians and scientists in an integrated multi-campus system spanning the globe. The unified mission at Mayo Clinic is to provide the best patient care, backed by our expertise and innovation in education, research and practice, to bring hope and healing in times of need. We embrace collegial relationships among three campuses (Arizona, Florida and Minnesota) allowing for best practices and innovation to help solve the most serious complex medical challenges-one patient at a time.

We support a vibrant and diverse research enterprise, with programs in basic, translational, clinical, population, and data sciences. In 2024, the Mayo Clinic received $754 million in extramural research awards; the institution provided additional $517 million of intermural support to promote research. Laboratories and shared resource facilities are state-of-the-art, including those for biomolecular analysis, molecular development, data analytics, specimen processing, and structural testing and imaging. Mayo Clinic supports innovation and has a wealth of resources available – including an integrated health record and collaboration with top clinical specialists. The highly competitive compensation package includes substantial long-term institutional and departmental support for salary, personnel, equipment, and travel as well as a competitive startup package all designed to ensure immediate and continued success. Additional benefits for faculty at Mayo Clinic include intramural funding opportunities for research, innovation and collaboration.

The Department of Immunology
The Department of Immunology at Mayo Clinic, the oldest free-standing immunology department in the country, is the academic home for basic and translational scientists studying the immune system in health and disease. As scientists, department members have a common understanding and passion for advancing knowledge of fundamental mechanisms that cause and regulate inflammation and immunity. The Department of Immunology faculty are located at three campuses across the Mayo Clinic enterprise. Immunology laboratories are highly interactive and collaborative between campuses in Rochester (MN), Jacksonville (FL), and Phoenix/Scottsdale (AZ).

Faculty members in the Department of Immunology study a wide spectrum of diseases interrelated by the molecular, cellular, and genetic regulatory mechanisms that dictate the immune responses associated with them. The Department nurtures a highly interactive approach to basic science that creates new knowledge and fosters the discovery of new treatments and diagnostic tests for patients with disease-specific problems.

Research in the Department of Immunology is intertwined with the education and training of the next generation of researchers. Faculty members' laboratories serve as focal points for training graduate students seeking Ph.D. or M.D.-Ph.D. degrees through the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (MCGSBS). Department of Immunology faculty members teach courses in MCGSBS and Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. They also mentor postdoctoral research fellows and clinical trainees conducting research.Each summer, the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences' Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship engages undergraduates in various research experiences, including in the Department of Immunology.

Transplant Center
As the largest integrated transplant provider in the nation, Mayo Clinic's Transplant Center has experience with just about every kind of transplant and accompanying condition, from common to very rare. Every year, more than 150 surgeons, physicians, and hundreds of allied health staff, specifically trained to care for transplant patients, perform more than 2,000 solid organ and bone marrow transplants in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota. Together, Mayo Clinic caregivers produce some of the best outcomes in the country, including speed to transplant, organ acceptance, and patient survival.

Mayo Clinic has preeminent adult and pediatric transplant programs, offering heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung, hand, face, and blood and bone marrow transplant services. Mayo doctors were on the leading edge of medicine when they performed their first clinical transplant in 1963. They have remained there ever since, continually improving and expanding organ transplantation. Research activities in the Transplant Center at Mayo Clinic directly contribute to the current successful outcomes of organ transplantation. The candidate will be strongly encouraged to explore entrepreneurial opportunities aligned with Mayo Clinic’s 2030 vision to Cure, Connect, and Transform.

Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital city of Arizona and is located in the central region of the state; Scottsdale is adjacent to Phoenix. Their metropolitan area boasts almost 5 million residents in 25 cities and towns. People may know it for its year-round sun, desert beauty, and world-class resorts and golf, but as the fifth-largest city in the U.S., it also offers sophisticated urban capes, southwest culture and lots of outdoor adventure. The "Valley of the Sun" as Phoenicians refer to it, is surrounded by mountain parks—in fact, South Mountain Park and Preserve is the largest municipal park in the U.S.—so it's easy to get out and enjoy the flora, fauna and some incredible views (and sunsets). And, although Phoenix is in the Sonoran Desert, there are six lakes in close proximity where water lovers can kayak, paddleboard, Jetski, waterski, boat, fish or just lounge on the shore. Over the next few years, Mayo Clinic is making significant investments in both the physical and technological future of health care, through doubling the size of the Mayo Clinic campus in Phoenix, inclusive of practice, education, and research activities.

Requirements

Credentials of a successful candidate will include a doctoral degree (Ph.D., M.D., Sc.D., or equivalent) with background in a relevant science and/or engineering field (e.g. immunology, biomedical engineering, cell biology, physiology, nanotechnology). We especially seek investigators whose research programs directly and innovatively impact the field of tolerance and transplant. Specific areas of interest include but are not limited to engineering Tregs, CAR-T cells, hematopoietic stem cells and hypoimmunogenic universal stem cells, enhancing tolerogenic functions of immune cells, developing and targeting delivery of immunomodulatory biomaterials, and creating platforms to evaluate immune tolerance and immune therapeutics.

The ideal candidate will have a history of NIH-equivalent extramural funding and strong promise to continuously compete well for meritorious, competitive extramural funding. Junior investigators with strong track record of funding and publications with clear vision to develop their research program in immune engineering are also encouraged to apply. Candidates should exhibit evidence of leadership skills and multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations with both scientists and clinicians.

Applications should include a cover letter, CV with bibliography, and a statement of research interests.

Equal Opportunity
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, protected veteran status or disability status. Learn more about the "EOE is the Law". Mayo Clinic participates in E-Verify and may provide the Social Security Administration and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security with information from each new employee's Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.