Join Us
Join
Work on the hardest question in cancer.
Our lab is a place to ask hard questions about how cancer kills people — and to build the tools that might one day stop it. We are committed to training scientists who pair ambition with rigor, intellectual independence with collaboration, and curiosity-driven discovery with translational impact.
Postdoctoral positions
We are actively recruiting postdoctoral fellows across all four of our research themes: hereditary genetics of metastasis, anti-metastatic therapeutic development, tRNA-mediated gene regulation, and neural regulation of cancer. We are especially interested in candidates with strong backgrounds in:
- Cancer biology, with mouse modeling experience (GEMMs, PDX, syngeneic systems)
- Molecular and cell biology, particularly RNA biology or post-transcriptional regulation
- Systems neuroscience, with an interest in peripheral nervous system biology
- Computational biology — single-cell genomics, spatial transcriptomics, statistical genetics
- Chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, for therapeutic target work
To apply, please email Sohail directly (stavazoie@rockefeller.edu) with your CV, a brief description of your research interests and how they intersect with the lab, the names and contact information of three references, and PDFs of relevant published or unpublished manuscripts. We aim to respond to serious inquiries within two weeks.
Graduate training
PhD students join the lab through one of three programs:
- The David Rockefeller Graduate Program in Bioscience
- The Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program (Rockefeller / Weill Cornell / MSKCC)
- The Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computational Biology and Medicine
We welcome rotation students from all three programs each year. If you are interested in rotating, please reach out by email a few weeks in advance — we will have a conversation about whether your interests fit with current open projects.
Medical students
Through Rockefeller’s Year-Off Training Program, we host MD students for one-year research experiences. Past students have made foundational contributions to lab projects and continued into academic physician-scientist careers.
What we offer
We invest seriously in our trainees. Mentorship is hands-on at the start of a project and becomes increasingly hands-off as you develop scientific independence. We expect ambitious projects with the time and resources to do them well. Lab members are supported in attending major meetings locally and internationally, building collaborations across institutions through Sohail’s leadership roles in the NY CZ Biohub and Weill Cancer East Hub, and developing the writing and presentation skills that distinguish strong scientists.
Where our alumni have gone — to faculty positions, leading biotechs, and clinical-translational roles — is documented on our Alumni page, and we encourage applicants to talk with current and former lab members about their experience.
International applicants are welcome; Rockefeller’s office of international services handles visa support.
Lab culture
We are a relatively flat lab with strong horizontal collaboration between trainees. We meet weekly as a full group, in smaller theme-based groups, and one-on-one. We take scientific debate seriously and personal kindness equally so.
The Tri-Institutional campus on the Upper East Side gives us easy collaboration with MSKCC and Weill Cornell across the street, and New York City itself is what you make of it.