Lab Research Analyst I

School of Medicine Established in 1930, Duke University School of Medicine is the youngest of the nation's top medical schools. Ranked sixth among medical schools in the nation, the School takes pride in being an inclusive community of outstanding learners, investigators, clinicians, and staff where interdisciplinary collaboration is embraced and great ideas accelerate translation of fundamental scientific discoveries to improve human health locally and around the globe.

Composed of more than 2,600 faculty physicians and researchers, nearly 2,000 students, and more than 6,200 staff, the Duke University School of Medicine along with the Duke University School of Nursing, and Duke University Health System comprise Duke Health, a world-class academic medical center. The Health System encompasses Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Duke Health Integrated Practice, Duke Primary Care, Duke Home Care and Hospice, Duke Health and Wellness, and multiple affiliations.

David Lab Job Description

The David Lab at Duke University ((Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).) is recruiting a Laboratory Research Analyst I to join a team of scientists developing and using new DNA sequencing tools to study diet. We are particularly interested in creating new ways to measure and analyze food intake, which is essential for monitoring and improving human health. We are developing new DNA sequencing-based techniques that track the dietary plant and animal species people consume.

Our techniques generate objective data on intakes of over 900 plant and animal species, robust to differences in memory/recall, and standardized across languages and cultures using the universal language of DNA. We collaborate with researchers and communities across North Carolina and the world. Our studies will also create new models of disease risk and examine geographic, cultural, behavioral, and socioeconomic determinants of diet.

Our projects are funded by awards from Schmidt Sciences, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the National Institutes of Health, the Gerber Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

We seek a Laboratory Research Analyst I to own the research-data operations behind our DNA sequencing studies, connecting the lab’s molecular and sequencing work to the datasets and systems the whole team relies on. Working independently and in regular consultation with the Principal Investigator, the analyst will run and help develop our Food Seq bioinformatics pipelines, perform quality control on sequencing data, and manage sample and sequencing-run metadata across multiple cohorts, from sample receipt through analysis-ready output.

Because this work sits at the interface of our wet-lab, field-sampling, and computational efforts, it calls for someone who understands our laboratory and sequencing processes and can integrate their data into the systems we use to run the lab. The analyst will bring operational discipline, provenance, and reproducibility to multi-project sequencing workflows, and will help train and coordinate junior personnel on data practices.

Integration of Generative AI into these operational workflows is an ongoing lab priority and would be an important component of the role.

• Run, monitor, and help develop the lab’s Food Seq bioinformatics pipelines for processing DNA sequencing data, including metabarcoding assays (e.g., trnL, 12SV5) for dietary plant and animal species.
• Perform quality control on sequencing runs and processed data; identify sources of technical variation and flag adverse trends for the research team.
• Devise, test, and refine computational procedures and analytical techniques in the planning, development, and implementation of the lab’s genomic data workflows.

• Organize and maintain sample, sequencing-run, and cohort metadata across multiple concurrent projects, ensuring accuracy, provenance, and chain-of-custody from sample receipt through analysis-ready output.
• Integrate sequencing data with the lab’s sample-tracking, data-storage, and…