Research Assistant

Job Description

We are currently seeking a self‑motivated and highly organized research assistant to support the lab of Dr. Price

E. Dickson at the Joan

C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. The Dickson Laboratory investigates the genetic drivers of drug addiction using the following approaches:

• Behavioral neuroscience
• Behavioral genetics
• Systems genetics
• Recombinant inbred mouse panels
• Operant conditioning
• Intravenous drug self‑administration
• Machine learning approaches for analysis of mouse behavior
• Omics approaches including bulk, single-cell, and spatial RNA- seq
• Bioinformatics analysis of omics data
• Calcium imaging techniques including fiber photometry and miniaturized microscopes

• Behavioral testing of mice
• Learning and implementing surgical techniques in the laboratory mouse including intravenous jugular catheterization and stereotaxic surgery
• Maintaining a colony of experimental mice (~250 cages)
• Tissue harvesting and preparation of tissue samples for sequencing
• Wet bench techniques
• Cryostat techniques
• Coordinating these tasks with a team of technicians, doctoral students, and research scientists