Research Scientist​/Engineer Assistant

Seattle, WA

Full time

REQ-

The Institute for Protein Design has an outstanding opportunity for a Research Scientist/Engineer Assistant to join their team.”

Located at the University of Washington in Seattle, the Institute for Protein Design is a unique interdisciplinary environment where world-class researchers create new biomolecules. Our mission is to create proteins that solve modern challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. This position is engaged in recombinant protein production and characterization in support of the Multistage Malaria Research Team, with an emphasis on producing and evaluating designed malaria antigens, protein nanoparticles, and related reagents for vaccine research.

As a member of the Multistage Malaria Research Team, this position will make important research contributions that support the development and evaluation of vaccine candidates targeting multiple stages of malaria infection. The team is advancing multiple vaccine antigens, antigen-bearing nanoparticles, and combination vaccine strategies across several parallel research efforts.

The Research Scientist/Engineer Assistant will support these efforts by expressing and purifying recombinant proteins, performing established biochemical and biophysical characterization assays, collecting high-quality experimental data, and helping organize and communicate results. The work will be performed collaboratively with scientists at the Institute for Protein Design and its research partners.

• Work with Multistage Malaria Research Team members to accomplish research goals and maintain productive relationships with research colleagues and collaborators.
• Follow established protein production, purification, characterization, and documentation workflows.
• Maintain accurate laboratory records, databases, inventories, and experimental data.
• Attend project meetings, laboratory meetings, and team-building activities.

• Produce recombinant proteins using bacterial expression systems, including
  
  E. coli/Shuffle T7/BL21*, and/or mammalian cell systems such as HEK
  293 or CHO for high-priority Multistage Malaria projects.
• Perform established protein purification workflows using FPLC/ÄKTA systems, including affinity, size-exclusion, and ion-exchange chromatography as appropriate.
• Characterize proteins, antigens, and protein nanoparticles using SDS-PAGE, HPLC, biolayer interferometry (BLI/Octet), dynamic light scattering (DLS), negative stain electron microscopy (nSEM) and other established analytical methods.
• Produce and prepare low-endotoxin proteins for in vivo studies, including aliquoting, labeling, quality documentation, and preparation of Certificates of Testing (CoTs) for distribution to study partners and collaborators.
• Prepare buffers, reagents, standards, and samples, and perform routine laboratory calculations required for protein production and characterization.
• Follow standard operating procedures and working guidelines and document protocols and experiments performed in the wet lab.
• Review and organize experimental data, recognize results that fall outside expected ranges, and communicate observations to senior research staff.
• Maintain experimental records and enter data into laboratory databases and tracking systems.
• Prepare proteins and related reagents for downstream in vitro and in vivo studies and for distribution to collaborators.

• Maintain laboratory inventories, common reagents, buffers, consumables, and biological materials used by the Multistage Malaria Research Team.
• Perform routine…