Postdoctoral Associate

Lafata Lab Postdoctoral Associate

Be You.

At Duke, we believe groundbreaking discoveries happen when talented individuals bring their unique experiences, perspectives, and expertise together. As a Lafata Lab Postdoctoral Associate, you will join a highly collaborative and innovative research environment dedicated to advancing translational science through computational pathology, biomedical engineering, and clinical research.

Working alongside multidisciplinary teams of scientists, clinicians, engineers, and data experts, you will contribute to impactful NIH-funded research programs, including active clinical trials, while helping shape the future of precision medicine and tissue microenvironment analysis. Your creativity, curiosity, and scientific rigor will drive new discoveries that improve patient care and deepen our understanding of complex diseases.

Be Bold.

As a key member of the Lafata Laboratory, you will lead the laboratory's computational digital pathology initiatives and develop next-generation analytical approaches to characterize tissue immune microenvironments across oncologic and non-oncologic disease models.

What You'll Do:

Lead Digital Pathology Innovation

• Design, implement, and maintain advanced quantitative image analysis pipelines for whole-slide tissue imaging.
• Extract spatial, morphological, and clinically relevant biomarkers to support multi-institutional NIH-funded research and clinical trial activities.
• Ensure robust, scalable, and reproducible computational workflows.

Develop Spatial and Immune Microenvironment Models

• Create novel computational models and spatial statistical methodologies to characterize tissue architecture.
• Quantify immune cell organization, cell-to-cell interactions, and microenvironment dynamics.
• Advance the understanding of disease processes through innovative spatial analysis techniques.

Build Transformative Computational Solutions

• Bridge computer engineering, machine learning, and translational biomedical science.
• Develop modular software tools, simulation frameworks, and machine learning pipelines to support biomarker discovery and validation.
• Contribute to cross-cohort analyses that accelerate translational research outcomes.

Drive Data Integration and Quality Excellence

• Oversee data ingestion, quality assurance, and standardization of imaging and clinical datasets from collaborating institutions.
• Support large-scale clinical trial operations through rigorous data management practices.
• Foster reproducibility and consistency across complex multi-site research programs.

Advance Scientific Discovery

• Lead the development of peer-reviewed scientific publications and scholarly presentations.
• Present findings at national and international scientific conferences.
• Contribute innovative methodologies, preliminary results, and technical expertise to competitive grant proposals and future funding initiatives.

What You Bring:

• A PhD in Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Medical Physics, Computational Biology, Data Science, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Experience in computational image analysis, digital pathology, machine learning, or biomedical data science.
• Strong programming and software development skills.
• Experience working with complex biomedical, imaging, or clinical research datasets.
• Excellent scientific communication, collaboration, and problem-solving abilities.
• A passion for advancing healthcare research through innovative computational methods.

Choose Duke.

At Duke, you'll find more than a postdoctoral opportunity. You'll discover a community committed to excellence, innovation, collaboration, and meaningful impact.

As part of Duke's world-renowned research enterprise, you will:

• Contribute to cutting-edge NIH-funded translational research.
• Collaborate with leading experts across medicine, engineering, and computational sciences.
• Access state-of-the-art research facilities, technologies, and professional development opportunities.
• Build a strong publication, grant, and scientific leadership portfolio.
• Help advance discoveries that have the potential to improve patient outcomes and transform healthcare.

Ready to Make a Difference?

Bring your expertise, curiosity, and passion for discovery to Duke. Apply today and help advance the next generation of computational pathology, biomedical innovation, and translational research.