Join the lab · The Mohi Lab
We are seeking
postdocs & students.
If you have hands in molecular biology, mouse genetics, or computational biology, and if you want your next paper to matter clinically, write to gm7sj@virginia.edu. Include a CV and a paragraph on what you want to build. The lab recruits at three career stages, listed below.
Postdoctoral fellowships.
For people coming off a thesis with a clinical translation in mind.
We recruit postdoctoral fellows whose technical center of mass is in molecular biology, mouse genetics, hematology, or computational genomics. The lab values trainees who finish what they start: knock-in mice characterized end-to-end, mechanism papers that hold up to outside replication, and trial-relevant findings published in the field's top journals.
Funding for postdoc positions comes through three active NIH awards (R01 NHLBI U2AF1, R21 NCI IL-1, R01 JAK2V617F MPN progression) plus institutional support from the UVA Cancer Center and the BMG department. Postdocs are expected to apply for individual fellowships (NIH F32, LLS Fellow, ASH Scholar) within their first year.
What you get back: weekly one-on-one mentorship with the PI, a publication track record in the lab's home journals (Blood, Leukemia, Nature Communications, Cancer Research), proximity to a clinical translation already in trials (NCT04176198), and a department that takes early-career investigator development seriously.
Graduate students.
Through the UVA Biomedical Sciences PhD program. Thesis advisor: Dr. Mohi.
Graduate students join the lab through the University of Virginia Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) PhD program — applications go through the program, not directly to the lab. After admission, BIMS students complete three lab rotations in their first year and choose a thesis lab from those rotations.
Rotation projects in The Mohi Lab are designed to be self-contained but representative: a rotation student typically inherits a defined biological question, a mouse cohort or cell-line experiment, and three months to land a clean readout. The point is for both sides to learn how the working relationship feels under real time pressure.
Thesis projects span the lab's six fronts. A current PhD student is positioned to take ownership of any one of them — JAK2V617F MPN, the U2AF1 / SRSF2 splicing program, IL-1 inflammation, the PIM kinase / Nuvisertib bench-to-clinic axis, AML progression, or PIM in TNBC.
Undergraduates & summer research.
Hands-on time at the bench, with a question to answer.
Undergraduate research positions in the lab are limited and typically run for at least two semesters or one full summer. Short rotations rarely produce useful data; the lab's projects are biological in scale and need real time to mature.
We work best with undergraduates who have already taken an introductory cell or molecular biology course, who have at least one prior lab experience (course-based or otherwise), and who can commit to 10+ hours per week during the academic year.
Summer research positions are often paired with UVA's HHMI Summer Research Program, the Cancer Center's summer programs, or external NSF REU programs. Applicants without external funding should still write — the lab occasionally has independent slots.
We are interested in understanding how different mutations associated with blood cancer contribute to the disease. Our ultimate goal is to find new therapeutic targets and develop novel therapies for leukemias.
The lab runs on weekly one-on-one meetings with the PI, weekly group meetings where every member presents a project once a month, and tight feedback on figures before they leave the lab. Trainees pick their project at the rotation stage and own it through publication; the PI keeps the strategic line, but tactical decisions belong to the person at the bench.
The lab values careful experiments over fast ones, papers in field-defining journals over publication count, and trainees who go on to run their own labs over technicians-for-life. There is no prestige hierarchy between bench and computation; both produce first-author papers here.
UVA School of Medicine and the UVA Cancer Center provide the ecosystem: the BMG department for fundamental molecular work, the Cancer Center for translational infrastructure and trial access, the Hematology / Oncology clinic for patient samples and clinical context. Charlottesville itself is a small, livable academic town with mountains nearby.
How to apply