Post-Doc Research Associate

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation's top public universities and is among is the top ten research universities in the nation for federal research expenditures as well as for federally funded social and behavioral sciences research and development.

Here at Carolina, our highly skilled postdocs play a vital role in our research enterprise and towards our overall commitment to research excellence. Across many disciplines, postdocs contribute to the intellectual vitality of the University. They provide innovative ideas and perspectives, foster a stimulating research environment and advance knowledge within their fields. Postdocs are crucial members of our scientific research workforce, contributors to our research outputs and an important reason why Carolina is one of the leading public research institutions in the country.

UNC-Chapel Hill offers postdocs comprehensive medical and vision coverage, paid leave, and benefits and services that support professional development and a healthy work/life balance. Chapel Hill regularly ranks as one of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, a reputation guided by the diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We accomplish this by providing leadership and excellence in the interrelated areas of patient care, education and research.

Patient care: We promote health and provide superb clinical care while maintaining our strong tradition of reaching underserved populations and reducing health disparities across North Carolina and beyond.

Education: We prepare tomorrow`s healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers from all backgrounds by facilitating learning within innovative and integrated curricula and team-oriented interprofessional education to ensure a highly skilled workforce.

Research: We develop and support a rich array of outstanding health sciences research programs, centers and resources. We provide infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration among disciplines throughout and beyond our university to support outstanding research. We foster programs in the areas of basic, translational, mechanistic and population research.

The Dittmer Group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Associate to join our team and contribute to an innovative project on the human virome. This NIH-funded research focuses on the large-scale propagation, purification, and sequencing of a wide variety of human viruses, with the goal of developing a high-resolution atlas of the circulating virome.

The successful candidate will take a leading role in growing multiple human viral species under controlled conditions, followed by the implementation of advanced purification protocols. These viral preparations will then be subjected to long-read sequencing and molecular quantification. A central aim of the project is to achieve sub-genomic sensitivity targeting detection thresholds below one genome copy per milliliter and to establish a robust, single-virion detection pipeline. This will allow us to quantify how many intact virions are truly represented in a given next-generation sequencing ( NGS) dataset, thereby improving the interpretability and diagnostic value of metagenomic sequencing in clinical and research contexts.

Our group operates in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment that integrates virology, molecular biology, and computational analysis. The ideal candidate will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with emerging technologies such as PacBio HiFi sequencing, bioinformatics pipelines for viral genome assembly, and high-throughput diagnostic workflows.

This project is particularly suited to candidates interested in the intersection of quantitative virology and genomics and offers a chance to work at the forefront of virus discovery and surveillance. For an example of our approach and recent results, please see our recent publication: J Virol. 2025 Apr 16:e0195024.

The salary is commensurate with experience according to NIH scale.

Ph.D. in virology, immunology, cell biology or related fields. Ph.D. must be awarded no more than two years prior to the effective date of appointment

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Graduate-level coursework in biological sciences; quantitative biological and chemical expertise; scientific method and experimental design/interpretation.

For information on UNC Postdoctoral Benefits and Services click here

If you experience any problems accessing the system or have questions about the application process, please contact the University's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at (919) 962-9982 or send an email to opahr@unc.edu.

Please note: The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs will not be able to provide specific updates regarding position or application status.

The University is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all to apply without regard to age, color, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.