Research Associate​/Senior Research Associate

Level: Research Associate or Senior Research Associate

Reports to: Associate Director of Process Development / R&D Leadership

About Cyto Hub

Cyto Hub is a San Diego biotech building AI-enabled human tissue platforms for drug discovery, diagnostics, safety testing, and translational research. Its Discovery & Diagnostics Division develops iPSC-derived models, including Cardio Vive™, a human mini-heart system for cardiac pharmacology, cardiotoxicity, and cardiovascular disease modeling. Cyto Hub is also advancing the platform for application to other systems, including brain, liver, and kidney, etc.

BioEngineAI™, an AI-native platform built on a proprietary cardiac biology dataset, powers our AI/data layer for predictive analysis, development of digital twins, and manufacturing automation. Heart Ready™, a regenerative cellular therapy for ischemic heart failure, is being developed in parallel under Cardia Therapeutics.

We're hiring an RA or SRA in the Discovery & Diagnostics Division to help develop, produce, characterize, and scale human iPSC-derived tissue platforms — starting with Cardio Vive™, our pharma-facing cardiac model, and extending to emerging models. This role will generate iPSC-derived organoids and 3D tissue models, run functional, imaging, molecular, and cell-based assays, and feed structured datasets into BioEngineAI™. Work may also support cell-therapy programs in the Cardia Therapeutics division as needed.

At the SRA level, the successful candidate will independently lead work streams, optimize protocols, support assay qualification, mentor junior staff, and collaborate across biology, analytics, process development, and computational teams.

• Maintain human iPSC lines and perform directed differentiation into relevant lineages.
• Assemble and characterize organoids and other 3D tissue systems, optimizing protocols for reproducibility and batch-to-batch consistency.

• Scale tissue manufacturing by selecting and implementing automation and bioreactor technologies suited to the production stage.
• Automation and High-Throughput Screening
• Develop and run high-throughput screening campaigns on iPSC-derived models in microplate formats (96-well and higher density).
• Operate, program, and integrate automated liquid handlers and robotic platforms into automated assay and culture workflows.
• Contribute to automation planning for tissue manufacturing and assay scale-up, including process mapping and transfer of manual methods to automated platforms.

• Run functional and phenotypic assays across relevant readout modalities.
• Perform imaging-based and molecular characterization of cellular and tissue samples.
• Analyze and report assay outputs in a structured, reproducible manner.

• Apply iPSC-derived models to disease phenotyping, compound testing, and mechanism-of-action studies across therapeutic areas.
• Support safety, toxicity, pharmacology, and diagnostic assay workflows for internal and partner programs.
• Contribute to assay qualification and platform validation activities.

· Generate structured, metadata-rich datasets ready for downstream computational use.

· Maintain accurate sample annotation, assay traceability, and data provenance throughout experimental workflows.

· Partner with computational scientists on iterative design-build-test-learn cycles.

• Plan, execute, and document experiments against project milestones in ELN/LIMS systems.
• Author SOPs, protocols, and technical reports, and present results in internal forums.
• Support day-to-day lab operations and safety compliance.

• BSc or MSc in a relevant life sciences or bioengineering field, with 3+ years of hands-on lab experience in academia, biotech, or pharma.
• Hands-on experience with human iPSC culture, 3D tissue or organoid systems, and standard imaging, flow, and molecular assays.
• Strong grasp of experimental design, documentation, and reproducibility, with comfort generating structured datasets for downstream computational use.

• Experience with…