Join us
An inclusive, rigorous, dynamic, and collaborative place to train
We train scientists of every background to ask bold questions, test them with care, and report what they find with honesty. We work as a team, inside the lab and with partner labs across UMass Chan and beyond. We believe everyone can grow and improve, and that mistakes are part of learning.
Our environment
How we work together
Inclusive
We welcome learners of all backgrounds and conditions. Every lab member is expected to treat others with respect, share credit fairly, and make room for every voice in lab meetings.
Rigorous
We design experiments with proper controls and enough replicates, keep careful records, and repeat key results before we publish. We treat an honest negative result as a result.
Dynamic
Projects move between worms, immune cells, and gut cells, and between genetics, imaging, and genomics. Trainees learn many methods and follow the questions where they lead.
Collaborative
Science is a team effort. Lab members share skills, reagents, and ideas, and they work with partner labs, from the Srinivasan lab at WPI to research groups in Europe and Asia. Trainees learn to build and lead these partnerships.
Our philosophy
A growth mindset
A growth mindset is key to building confidence and resilience. We all move between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, and the lab works to support growth.
A mentor is much more than an advisor or a boss. A mentor gives many kinds of feedback so that a trainee can grow as a scientist: training in skills, support through challenges, coaching in critical thinking, encouragement when motivation flags, and help with direction and project management.
.jpg){kind=link}
How we mentor
What training looks like here
One-on-one meetings
Regular meetings with Javier to plan experiments, solve problems, and set goals.
Lab meetings and journal clubs
We share data, read papers together, and learn to give and take feedback.
Skills and networking
Hands-on training, demonstrations, and a start on the professional network a career needs.
Openings
Who we are looking for
[Update when positions open]
Graduate students
Students in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, including the Immunology and Microbiology Program, are welcome to rotate in the lab. Prospective students can start with Morningside Graduate School admissions.
Postdoctoral fellows
We welcome applicants with backgrounds in immunology, microbiology, cell biology, genetics, or genomics.
Undergraduates
Motivated undergraduates interested in research experience can contact us.
Our community
Part of the Department of Microbiology
The lab belongs to the Department of Microbiology at UMass Chan Medical School. The department studies biological questions that bear on a broad range of diseases, including how pathogens affect the organs they target. Graduate students join us through the Immunology and Microbiology Program of the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Department of Microbiology
Faculty, research, seminars, and news from our home department.
Visit the departmentImmunology and Microbiology Program
The PhD program (IMP) for students interested in innate and adaptive immunity, host-pathogen interactions, and infection.
Explore the IMPGraduate admissions
How to apply to PhD programs at the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Admissions overviewHow to apply
Get in touch
Write to Javier
Email Javier.Irazoqui@umassmed.edu to ask about positions in the lab. Please do not attach files or send links to files; we do not open attachments sent by email.
Send your materials securely
Upload your CV and a short statement on what you want to learn, as PDF files, through our secure application portal.
[Link to add: upload portal set up with UMass Chan IT]
Meet the lab
We will set up a time to talk about projects and training.