Project Researcher— Nanovial-Based Functional Screening and Sorting of Avatar Cells

1 Job title and number of positions available

Project Researcher – one person

2 Date of Commencement of Employment

As early as possible after completion of hiring procedures.

3 Term of Employment

As early as possible until March 31st 2027. The appointment may be renewed following an annual review for a period up to March 31st 2029, subject to budget availability, operational needs, and adequate performance.

4 Probation Period

14 days from the date of employment

5 Place of Work

The University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus (7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan). Scope of change: In principle, within the same department/bureau.

6 Contents of work duties

The Di Carlo Lab @ University of Tokyo is seeking a creative and highly motivated Project Researcher to lead experimental development for a Moonshot research program focused on Nanovial-based single-cell functional analysis of engineered Avatar cells. The project will develop lab-on-a-particle workflows that integrate cell culture, secretion capture, remote-control stimulation, cell–cell interaction assays, flow cytometry, fluorescence-activated sorting, and downstream molecular or functional analysis.

The long-term goal is to establish a high-throughput flow cytometry platform for evaluating and selecting engineered cells based on functional responses.

The Project Researcher will design and execute experiments, develop protocols, analyze data, mentor junior researchers, coordinate with collaborators, and contribute to publications, presentations, and milestone reports.

Scope of change: In principle, the University could change or reassign work duties.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead development of Nanovial-based workflows for loading, culturing, assaying, and recovering Avatar cells.
• Design experiments to quantify single-cell secretion magnitude, heterogeneity, time-dependent dynamics, and induced responses.
• Establish and optimize secretion capture/detection assays for engineered cell systems, including appropriate positive, negative, non-secreting, and unstimulated controls.
• Develop and validate flow cytometry and FACS workflows for analyzing and sorting cells based on secretion-defined phenotypes.
• Develop experimental approaches to evaluate cell–cell interaction-induced functional responses.
• Integrate sorted cells with downstream assays, potentially including time-resolved secretion dynamics, transcript profiling, Cell-Cell-seq-style workflows, or other functional readouts.
• Analyze high-dimensional flow cytometry and functional assay data, generate quantitative reports, and define quality metrics for Avatar-cell performance.
• Work with the PI and collaborators to plan experiments aligned with annual and multi-year Moonshot milestones.
• Mentor research technicians and undergraduate researchers in experimental design, assay execution, data analysis, and record keeping.
• Prepare manuscripts, conference abstracts, grant progress reports, and presentations.
• Maintain rigorous documentation of protocols, experimental results, troubleshooting steps, and standard operating procedures.
• Contribute to a collaborative, interdisciplinary research environment spanning cell engineering, single-cell analysis, microfluidics, flow cytometry, and functional genomics.

7 Working Hours

Based on the discretionary work system for professional work, working hours are deemed to be 7 hours and 45 minutes per day.

8 Days off and Leave

Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays and end-of-year holidays (December 29 to January 3) Annual leave, summer leave, bereavement leave etc.

9 Salary and Allowance

Monthly salary inclusive of applicable performance/result-based allowances starting at JPY 450,000 and commensurate with qualifications and previous experience. Commuting allowance (Up to 55,000 yen/month if requirements are met)

10 Insurance

The successful candidate will be automatically enrolled in the insurance scheme provided by the Mutual Aid Association of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and employment insurance.

11 Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in bioengineering, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, cell biology, molecular biology, immunology, synthetic biology, biophysics, or a related field.
• Strong experimental background in cell-based assays.
• Experience designing, executing, troubleshooting, and interpreting quantitative biological experiments.
• Ability to work independently while coordinating effectively with a multidisciplinary team.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze data, prepare figures, and communicate results.

12 Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with flow cytometry, FACS, high-throughput screening, or single-cell analysis.
• Experience with mammalian cell engineering, immune cells, synthetic biology, cell therapy, or engineered genetic circuits.
• Experience with secretion assays, cytokine measurements, ELISA-like assays, antibody labeling, or functional cell assays.
• Experience with microfluidics, hydrogel microparticles, lab-on-a-particle systems, Nanovials, or compartmentalized single-cell assays.
• Familiarity with transcriptomics, single-cell RNA-seq, Cell-Cell-seq, perturbation screening, pooled library screening, or downstream molecular profiling.
• Computational skills for data analysis in Python, R, FlowJo, Seurat, other bioinformatic or related tools.
• Experience mentoring junior researchers and coordinating collaborative projects.

13 Application materials required

• Curriculum vitae using the University of Tokyo Standard Resume Format https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/content/400026271.xls
• 1-page Cover Letter explaining your interest and particular fit for the role
• Summary of the main research activities of the applicant (about 1000 words).
• List of publications and related scientific output, which should be divided into the following 3 types;
  • Referred papers and review articles
  • Non-refereed papers, conference proceedings, and review articles
  • Other relevant material

14 Document submission

All documents should be submitted as email attachments in pdf format to: dicarlo@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp . Please title the email: Application for Project Researcher — Nanovial-Based Functional Screening and Sorting of Avatar Cells

15 Application Deadline

All documents must arrive on or before July 15th 2026

16 Enquiries

Prof. Dino Di Carlo

Molecular & Life Innovation Bldg.

7 Chome-3 Hongo, Bunkyo City, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

The University of Tokyo

E-mail: dicarlo@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

17 Name of Recruiter

The University of Tokyo

18 State of working measures to avoid passive smoking

Smoking is prohibited inside the buildings of our university. We have smoking areas outdoors.

19 Others

• Interviews may be conducted after screening of documents.
• Personal information received through this application process will not be used for any other purposes.
• The University of Tokyo is committed to gender equality in hiring. More details of School of Science Master Plan for Gender Equality are available on the website https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/overview/gender/
• During the period of employment, sharing controlled technology to you may be prohibited by FEFTA and it may become difficult to execute your job as a faculty or a staff member of the University if you are under the control of a foreign government, corporation or university by contract, or under the control of a foreign government by economic interests. In such a case, you need to keep the contract or interests within the range that does not incur such restrictions.