Research Specialist II - Center Advancing Personalized Cancer Treatments

Florida International University is a Top 50, preeminent public research university with 55,000 students from all 50 states and more than 140 countries, as well as an alumni network of more than 340,000. Located in the global city of Miami, the university offers more than 200 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels, including medicine and law. FIU faculty are leaders in their fields and include National Academy members, Fulbright Scholars and Mac Arthur Genius Fellows.

A Carnegie R1 institution, FIU drives impactful research in environmental resilience, health and technology and innovation. Home to the Wall of Wind and Institute of Environment, FIU stands at the forefront of discovery and innovation. With a focus on student success, economic mobility and community engagement, FIU is redefining what it means to be a public research university.

The Research Specialist II will support translational cancer research at the Center for Advancing Personalized Cancer Treatments (CAPCT). The position will focus on implementing and optimizing high-throughput drug screening and high-content imaging assays to identify effective therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment and advance functional precision medicine. The position will be responsible for conducting high-throughput drug screening using patient-derived cell culture models, performing drug synergy and combination analyses, and evaluating therapeutic efficacy to identify synergistic drug interactions and potential treatment vulnerabilities.

The successful candidate will have demonstrated hands-on experience in high-throughput screening assay development and execution, drug combination testing, and quantitative synergy analysis using established analytical approaches. Additional responsibilities include assay optimization and validation, data analysis and interpretation, documentation of experimental results, and collaboration with an interdisciplinary research team to advance CAPCT's mission of identifying personalized, effective treatment strategies for patients with cancer.

• Design, perform, optimize, and troubleshoot high-throughput screening assays to evaluate the efficacy of chemotherapeutic compounds and identify potential therapeutic
• Independently operate, maintain, and troubleshoot a high-Content Imaging Screening System to perform automated high-content fluorescence-based assays and quantitative cellular analysis.
• Develop and optimize imaging protocols, acquisition parameters, and image-analysis workflows to characterize cellular phenotypes and evaluate responses to therapeutic interventions.
• Conduct single-agent and combination drug testing and perform quantitative drug synergy and antagonism analyses using established analytical models.
• Develop, optimize, validate, and standardize cell-based assays to assess drug sensitivity, cytotoxicity, cell viability, proliferation, and therapeutic response in patient-derived cell culture models.
• Analyze, interpret, and visualize experimental data using appropriate statistical methods and specialized software for dose-response modeling, IC50 determination, drug interaction assessment, and synergy scoring.
• Operate, maintain, and troubleshoot laboratory equipment and automated liquid-handling systems used in high-throughput screening, plate-based assays, and quantitative drug testing.
• Establish and implement quality-control procedures for screening assays, including positive and negative controls, replicate assessment, assay performance metrics, and Z-factor calculations where appropriate.
• Maintain accurate and detailed laboratory records, experimental protocols, screening datasets, and standard operating procedures; prepare data summaries,…