Summary

The Wythe Lab is currently seeking a research technician to join the team to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the basis of vascular malformations and cardiovascular disease, with a focus on studying the vasculature in the brain. The technician will be self started, motivated to learn new techniques, organized, works well in a team environment, and has excellent organizational skills and a good understanding of basic molecular biology or biochemistry. Additionally if the applicant has experience working with cell culture models, zebrafish, or mice will be bonus. This Research Technician I position is ideal for graduating seniors looking to take a year or two off before medical school or graduate school that would like to publish papers and get extensive research experience.

Job Duties

• Duties related to the overall goal of the research effort, that includes generating DNA constructs for generation of transgenic mice, basic manipulation of mouse embryos, maintenance of a mouse colony, and use of a variety of developmental biology, cell culture, immunohistochemical and molecular biology techniques to analyze tissues and cells in order to understand how endothelial cells differentiate into arterial and venous cells during development.
• Performs and executes successful experiments independently, and performs routine lab maintenance and organization. A lack of mouse experience can be offset by advanced skills in cell culture and biochemistry or cell-based assays, or extensive experience with zebrafish husbandry and embryology.
• Total Work Effort:
  • Works with mouse or zebrafish models.  General animal husbandry and maintenance of a medium size mouse or zebrafish colony. Embryo dissection and processing of fixed samples for.  X-gal staining, in-situ hybridization, and antibody staining (whole mount and section) and imaging (confocal, etc.)
  • Lab Maintenance. Share general lab maintenance responsibilities with other lab members (cleaning, etc), order supplies from vendors and negotiate price quotes, inventory of supplies and chemicals, schedules and organizes maintenance and repair of laboratory equipment, and makes general solutions.
  • Molecular biology and biochemistry.  Restriction enzyme digestion and mapping, agarose and acrylamide gel electrophoresis, isolation of DNA from agarose gel, ligation of DNA, transformation of DNA, mini- and maxi-preparation of DNA, PCR, isolation of RNA, southern, northern, and western blotting, synthesis of cDNA from RNA, quantitative RT-PCR, in-vitro transcription. Documents results of experiments (keep an electronic lab notebook and make PPTs of results).
  • Tissue Culture.  Propagation of mammalian cells, transient and stable transfection of cultured cells, isolation of DNA, RNA, and protein from cultured cells, antibody staining of cultured cells, luciferase activity quantitation in cultured cells.
  • Data Analysis.  Simple data analysis in excel spreadsheet format by performing arithmetical operations (multiplication, division, etc) on a set of data points, as well as obtaining the mean, standard deviation, and standard error of a sample set.  Results would be plotted on simple charts.

Minimum Qualifications

• Associate's degree in a Basic Science or related field. Two years of related experience may substitute for degree requirement.
• One year of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• At least one year of full time work in a molecular biology lab and familiarity with standard molecular biology techniques (PCR, restriction cloning, DNA cloning,agarose gel electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, Western, blot, etc.).
• One year of experience with mouse or zebrafish colony maintenance, husbandry, and PCR-based genotyping for a mouse colony >100 cages is essential.
• Fundamental knowledge of basic molecular biology is essential.
• Mouse or zebrafish husbandry and colony maintenance experience is required.
• PCR-based genotyping is required.
• Proficiency with the Microsoft office suite (excel, word, powerpoint) and computers in general are essential.
• Rigorous attention to detail, excellent organization and record keeping skills are essential.
• Familiarity with FileMaker pro is beneficial.
• Ability to learn and employ new software for record keeping and database management.