Research Assistant II Genomic Medicine

Microbial Engineer

The Johnston Laboratory is an interdisciplinary and highly collaborative team of microbiologists, synthetic biologists, bioinformaticians and engineers. The long-term goal of our research is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities of microbes/microbial communities within tumors, elucidate the underlying mechanisms driving their behavior, and utilize this knowledge to engineer innovative therapeutics and advanced microbe-based technologies for cancer prevention and treatment.

The ideal candidate will coordinate and conduct experiments and laboratory procedures to support research projects and support our ongoing microbial engineering projects and microbial technology developments, as well as supporting general laboratory responsibilities. The successful candidate will work independently with the PI and post-doctoral fellows using state-of-the-art approaches in synthetic microbiology and genomics in a highly collaborative, stimulating, and collegial research environment.

The candidate will also assist in lab maintenance, including responsibility of ordering lab reagents/supplies and making of communal lab reagents. With interest and experience in our lab, the individual may assist with additional opportunities in research. This position will provide ample opportunities for professional development and the acquisition of cutting-edge skills in synthetic microbiology research, research planning and strategy, and data analysis and interpretation.

Key functions include aerobic and anaerobic bacterial culture and stock maintenance, genetic engineering/transformation of bacterial strains/isolates, adherence to standard operating procedures for isolation and analysis of DNA and RNA from microbial specimens, assisting in the design and implementation of molecular biology and synthetic microbiology techniques for the genetic engineering of multiple microbial species, conducting diligent record-keeping and reporting, presenting findings at internal meetings, assisting in the development and implementation of standard operating procedures, maintaining and supporting shared tools and databases, and general lab maintenance including but not limited to ordering or organizing laboratory supplies and ensuring maintenance of equipment.

Education:

Required:

Bachelor's Degree Basic Science. Preferred:
Master's Degree Basic Science.

Experience:

Required:

One year scientific or experimental research work experience. Preferred:
Highly-motivated individual interested in a career in biological research or medicine, with a keen interest in genetic engineering of microbes. Technically meticulous when conducting experiments, highly organized in record-keeping, independent, intellectually passionate and able to display scientific initiative, excellent teamwork, time management and organizational skills, ability to work independently in a dynamic and results-oriented environment, ability to meet deadlines and multitask efficiently is a must.

Basic molecular biology and microbiology techniques, such as aseptic technique, bacterial isolation and culture, strain library maintenance, PCR, DNA/RNA/protein extraction, cloning, recombineering, etc. are stringently required. Working knowledge and previous wet-lab experience with transformation of non-model bacterial organisms (optimization of competent cell preparation/heat shock/electroporation), in addition to standard coli transformations, is highly desirable and preferred. Experience in the design and use of reagents for DNA cloning and genome engineering with shuttle vectors, suicide-vectors, CRISPR/Cas9 and transposon mutagenesis technologies also desirable.

Working knowledge and experience in anaerobic culture (anaerobic chamber use) will be beneficial to the role.