Research Assistant - Senior Research Assistant

Research Assistant 2 - Senior Research Assistant

Join to apply for the Research Assistant 2 - Senior Research Assistant role at Oregon Health & Science University

Research Assistant 2 - Senior Research Assistant

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Department Overview

Department Overview

Overview: The Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) center is a collaborative institution within the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. The Knight Cancer Institute, known as one of the pioneers in personalized cancer medicine, is an international leader in research and cancer treatment. At CEDAR our mission is to detect and stop lethal cancers at the earliest stage because early detection saves lives.

This is an ambitious goal, one that requires novelty, creativity, and innovation. We are comprised of biologists, chemists, biomedical engineers, computationalists, and clinicians conducting groundbreaking translational cancer research to help people maintain a high quality of life and reduce cancer mortality, to create a global early detection community, and to have a positive impact on the Oregon economy.

Our Commitment to Diversity: CEDAR is committed to increasing the diversity of the campus community. We are dedicated to promoting inclusion and multiculturalism by having outstanding researchers of diverse backgrounds work together on multiple projects. We encourage high-risk, high-reward research projects because defeating cancer requires out-of-the-box thinking and new perspectives. Our research is milestone driven to ensure that each project is fulfilling its stated goals.

Every Knight Cancer employee is expected to embody our guiding principles:

• We act BOLDLY—Breakthroughs require pushing the boundaries of science, exploring new frontiers, and thinking differently
• We SUPPORT each other—Respect leads to trust, which leads to excellence
• We work as a CONNECTED team—We must leverage our collective brain power to conquer cancer because no one individual can do it alone

Function/Duties of Position

We are developing an exciting new type of cancer diagnostic test that combines microfluidic and microarray technology to pull cancer-derived nanoparticles straight from plasma. Our long-term goal is to bring nanoparticle-based diagnostics to the clinic for the first time. We are currently hiring for a highly motivated and enthusiastic Research Assistant 2 or Senior Research Assistant.

We are looking for applicants with expertise in Engineering or Biology to work in some of the following general areas:

• Development of biological particle separation techniques using dielectrophoresis technology – Using microelectrode array chips to recover cancer-derived nanoparticles from circulation (Gustafson, et al. 2021). This novel work will focus on the development and characterization of new nanoparticle recovery techniques using dielectrophoretic forces. These forces are created by microelectrode array devices that act on the unique dielectric properties of different particles (Ibsen et al.
  
  2017). This work includes increasing particle collection efficiency, understanding the types of particles that are collected and how they can be separated, and developing an internal standard appropriate for different particle types. This position will utilize the high-end specialized dielectrophoresis equipment located here s will also involve quantitative fluorescent microscopy imaging, TEM imaging, immunostaining, and particle characterization.
• System automation – continuing development and finalization of an automated system to conduct the dielectrophoresis work. The goal is to automate the dielectrophoresis collection protocol to increase sample analysis throughput. This will involve basic robotics and automation programming in Lab View.
• Cancer biomarker panel development – Evaluate the nanoparticle associated biomarkers that are collected for their ability to detect pancreatic cancer from plasma samples. Here the goal is to use the developed dielectrophoresis…