To meet the interdisciplinary competency requirements of the BIG-TCR training program, applicants supervised by current primary mentor must find a co-mentor from their complementary side (for example, trainees in the TCR area need to find a co-mentor in the BIG area, and vice versa). UTHealth Houston tenured/tenure-track faculty members who have secured external funding are eligible to be the primary mentor and will be reviewed by the BIG-TCR Executive Committee regarding their funding support, previous mentorship experience, and prior and current efforts in cancer research. Both mentors must be UTHealth Houston regular faculty because this is an UTHealth Houston internal program. Only GSBS regular faculty from UTHealth Houston is eligible to be mentor/co-mentor.

Primary mentorship application is limited to one per faculty for each funding announcement cycle. Faculty can be co-mentors for more than one trainee.  Postdoctoral fellows will discuss with their two mentors to propose a cancer research project relevant to both BIG and TCR components, and be supervised by both mentors along the way until the project completes. Co-mentor needs to be UTHealth Houston faculty.

• NIH standard postdoctoral salary (first year) and other benefits (e.g. health insurance, retirement, etc.);
• presentations at national meetings;
• Enhancement activities: responsible conduct of research training, compelling in oral presentations and research proposals, seminars and workshops, core lab rotations, and BIG-TCR annual retreat.
• BIG-TCR postdoctoral fellows will be appointed for one year with the possibility of renewal, pending evaluation of research progress and active engagement in the BIG-TCR Training

Affiliated fellowships available for postdocs with salary/stipend support from UTHealth Houston employment: All benefits listed above except stipend support and health insurance.

Submission: Required documents should be compiled into one single PDF file in the order listed under Required Documents and submitted via email to BIG-TCR Training Program [email protected].

Please start the subject line with "BIG-TCR Postdoctoral Fellowship Application #Name of the applicant:".

*All the application forms and materials can be found here:

• BIG-TCR Training Program Postdoctoral Application PDF
• BIG-TCR Training Program Postdoctoral Application WORD DOCX
• Call For Application Postdoctoral PDF

Please use either Word or PDF file to prepare the application materials, and send the application in PDF format to [email protected] by midnight on the closing day of each application cycle.

Feel free to reach out the BIG-TCR training program before your application.

Formatting: Please use Arial, 11pt font, single-line spacing. Use paper size no larger than standard letter (A4, 8 1/2" x 11"). Provide at least one-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages.

Materials by Applicant:

Applicants are required to submit their

• postdoctoral fellowship application form, including applicant’s information;
• one-page personal statement that includes your short-term and long-term career goals, your interest in cancer research and your intention to enroll in the courses required by the competency-based BIG-TCR Postdoctoral Training Program, which includes the responsible conduct of research, research proposal writing, workshop, core lab rotation and the BIG-TCR annual retreat;
• two-page research statement (including abstract) that include research title, abstract, specific aims, background and significance, study design and methods, impact and relevance to both the BIG and TCR area, and expected outcomes;
• one-page training plan that describes which parts of the competency will be developed during the fellowship, and how mentors will supervise the trainee. This may include course work, presentation & writing training, computational training workshop, as well as laboratory trainings;
• applicant’s curriculum vitae (list essential educational and academic records);
• copies of academic transcripts (transcript and degree certificate from Graduate School or Medical School are required, others are optional)
• applicant’s attestation

Materials by Mentor/Co-Mentor:

• two Mentors’ biosketch (NIH format, no more than 5 pages for each mentor), which needs to be submitted by applicant along with other materials.
• Sign mentorship agreement in the application form, which needs to be submitted by applicant
• recommendation letters from both primary mentor and co-mentors are required.
• please send the recommendation letter to [email protected] with the subject line as "BIG-TCR Postdoctoral Mentor/Co-mentor Recommendation Letter for #the name of applicant”.

External recommendation letter:

• One letter of recommendation from an external supporter is required in support of the BIG-TCR Postdoctoral fellowship applicant. Recommendation letters should be sent in PDF format from the referee's institutional email address to BIG-TCR’s official email address [email protected] with the subject line as “BIG-TCR Postdoctoral Fellowship Application: Recommendation letter for #the name of applicant”. Please fill the same reference contact in the application form.