Viruses, cancer, and the road to research independence
2021 BIO5 Postdoctoral Fellow Rob Jackson at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson secured a pivotal National Institutes of Health grant to establish his career in virology and oral cancer.
Postdoctoral researcher and cancer virologist Rob Jackson works with doctoral candidate Isabelle (Issy) Tobey at their lab in the Biosciences Research Laboratories building at the University of Arizona.
Transitions are tough. For postdoctoral researchers pursuing academic research, the passage from a mentored, temporary job to an independent faculty position is filled with uncertainty when it comes to funding and career development.
Rob Jackson is one of those postdoctoral researchers in pursuit of a tenure track professorship. He performs basic research on the biology of human papillomaviruses (HPV) that may one day lead to innovative cancer therapeutics under the mentorship of BIO5 member Koenraad Van Doorslaer, associate professor of immunobiology and co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program at the U of A Cancer Center.