Laboratory Manager

The Quake Laboratory is being established at ETH Zürich in 2026 by Stephen Quake, who is moving from Stanford University. The lab works at the interface of physics, engineering, and biology, developing new measurement and modelling approaches that transform what is possible to learn from individual cells and from minute amounts of molecular material.

Three major research programmes will run in parallel: (1) reconstructing the regulatory architecture of

E. coli at high resolution as a foundation for predictive models of gene regulation; (2) building large-scale single-cell atlases of human and model-organism tissues — including a first-of-its-kind atlas of the human autonomic nervous system — and training AI/foundation models on those atlases to interrogate aging biology and the evolution of multicellularity; and (3) advancing liquid-biopsy approaches that read cell-free nucleic acids from blood to detect disease, monitor physiology in collaboration with external partners.

The lab will be a multidisciplinary environment of approximately 10 people spanning molecular biologists, biochemists, computational biologists, machine-learning researchers, physicists, and engineers, with active collaborations across ETH, EPFL, the University of Zürich, and internationally.

The Laboratory Manager is the operational backbone of the group. You will own the day-to-day functioning of a complex, multi-modal wet lab — from bacterial molecular biology through human clinical sample processing through high-throughput sequencing — while serving as senior bench scientist, trainer, and trusted adviser to the PI on everything that keeps a productive research group running.

This role is ideal for an experienced research scientist who enjoys working across multiple biological systems, building infrastructure, mentoring less experienced colleagues, and taking pride in operational excellence. You will not be expected to drive a separate independent research programme; rather, you will enable and accelerate everyone else's. In return, you will be a core, named contributor on ambitious science, with a genuine voice in how the lab is built.

Lab operations and infrastructure

• Lead the build-out and ongoing operation of the lab's wet-bench facilities at ETH, including equipment selection, installation, qualification, and routine maintenance contracts
• Establish and maintain shared resources: cell culture rooms, BSL-2 areas, sequencing prep zones, –80 °C and liquid-nitrogen storage, autoclaves, common reagent stocks, and instrument calendars
• Own ordering, supplier relationships, inventory management, and stockroom organisation across consumables and reagents; negotiate framework agreements where useful
• Maintain and audit core SOPs, sample-tracking systems, and electronic lab notebook practices across the group
• Serve as the lab's interface with ETH core facilities (e.g., Functional Genomics Center Zurich, ScopeM, Genome Engineering & Measurement Lab) and external service providers

Bacterial molecular biology and biochemistry —

E. coli regulome

• Run and oversee a molecular cloning pipeline for
  
  E. coli — design and assembly of plasmids and genome-integrated constructs, strain construction, and storage
• Set up and maintain biochemical workflows relevant to regulatory studies: protein expression and purification, in vitro transcription, and quantitative biochemistry as projects require
• Establish microbial growth, induction, and time‑course infrastructure, including plate readers, continuous‑culture systems, and microfluidics interfaces where relevant
• Train new lab members in fundamental microbiology, sterile technique, and standard
  
  E. coli genetics; troubleshoot stuck cloning and expression projects

Mammalian cell biology and tissue handling — single-cell atlases

• Run and supervise mammalian cell culture (primary cells, iPSC‑derived cells, established lines), including media preparation, line authentication, and biobanking
• Establish robust workflows for tissue dissociation, single‑cell and single‑nucleus suspension preparation, FACS‑based cell sorting, and quality assessment
• Coordinate the tissue‑acquisition pipeline…