THE OPENING: a NIH-funded opening is available for a postdoctoral fellow to join our pulmonary physiology research group.

THE PROBLEM: In the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), edema reduces pulmonary gas exchange. Mechanical ventilation assists gas exchange but causes ventilation induced lung injury (VILI) and impedes recovery.

OUR APPROACH AND FINDINGS: A unique method of determining surface tension in edematous alveoli of isolated rat lungs led us to (i) find that VILI is attributable to heterogeneous lung mechanics, and proportional to surface tension, and (ii) discover that a fluorescent dye has the ability to lower surface tension, improve oxygenation and reduce VILI.

THE POSITION: The position will comprise designing and performing experiments, analyzing data, writing papers and helping to train/mentor graduate/undergraduate students in the laboratory.

QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants must have experience with small animal surgery, preferably including arterial cannulation. A background in pulmonary, cardiovascular, renal or neuro physiology is desirable.

THE PI: Carrie E. Perlman, Ph.D., trained in mechanical engineering at MIT and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in pulmonary physiology at Columbia University. She is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Stevens, where she directs the BME Ph.D. program, and serves as a standing member of a NIH study section.

LAB WEBSITE: personal.stevens.edu/~cperlman/lungmechanics.html

THE ENVIRONMENT: Stevens, in the small city of Hoboken, NJ, provides a multidisciplinary research training environment. The beautiful campus is located on the Hudson River, directly opposite and 10 minutes by train or ferry from Manhattan.

CONTACT INFORMATION: Interested candidates should email Dr. Perlman at cperlman@stevens.edu, and attach a CV.