Description

About us:
The Wyss Institute’s mission is to transform healthcare and the environment by emulating the way nature builds. We harness the freedom of academia and the focus of industry in order to translate revolutionary technologies into commercial products and solutions. We support research that universities, companies, and venture capital firms don’t fund because they view it as too risky. We prefer to use the word “challenging,” and we love challenges. For more information, visit: http://wyss.harvard.edu/

About you:
You are a passionate, impact-motivated scientist and problem solver who relishes the opportunity to participate in fast-paced, dynamic research. You are focused on delivering impact through translational science and hope to one day join or found an early-stage biotech startup. You enjoy working with diverse groups of people and leveraging your expertise to create innovations that can change the world.

About the role:
We are looking for a research assistant to join our rapidly growing team within the Church lab at the Wyss Institute focused on engineering complex cellular therapies to address unmet medical needs across a variety of spaces. We have developed a pipeline leveraging DNA barcoding & next-generation-sequencing to perform in-vivo pooled discovery for complex cellular behaviors such as migration & trafficking. The Church lab has a history of effectively translating novel technology concepts into high-powered biotech startups focused on increasing innovation & productivity within the industry & addressing unmet needs for patients living with debilitating diseases. Reporting to the project leads, you will assist in key research studies involving in-vivo pooled functional genomics of immune cells for applications in the oncology and autoimmune spaces. Additionally, you will be closely involved in the continued development of our in-vivo pooled screening platform. This is a one year term position with the possibility of renewal.

What you’ll do:

• Maintain long-term mammalian cell cultures of immortalized cell lines, perform transfections, generate, titer, and annotate lentiviral/retroviral stocks
• Perform PBMC isolation, characterization, & stocking from LRS cones and peripheral human blood
• Isolate, activate, modify, & culture primary T cells and other immune cell lineages
• Aid in murine work including animal sacrifice, dissection, & large scale gDNA isolation from murine organs
• Execute on library preparation and sequencing workflows under the supervision of the project leads
• With supervision from project leads, assist in performing standard sub-cloning activities & participate in the design and cloning of complex libraries for mammalian cell engineering
• Contribute to developing and optimizing new experimental protocols under the supervision of the project leads
• Order supplies and perform support activities and lab maintenance
•  Accurately and thoroughly document experimental observations and protocols and help maintain a high level of organizational efficiency within the lab
• Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness in the workplace through actions & communications with others

Requirements

What you’ll need:

• College background in Biology, Bioengineering, Biochemistry, or related field required
• At least 1 year of experience performing long-term mammalian cell culture and standard molecular biology techniques is required. Education may count towards years of experience

Desirable skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Bioengineering, or Biochemistry strongly preferred
• Long-term mammalian cell culture of immortalized and primary cell lines is strongly preferred
• Prior experience with primary human immune cell isolation, culture, and modification is advantageous, but not required
• Familiarity with standard cloning techniques including gateway, gibson, and golden gate assembly is strongly preferred
• Experience with mammalian cell transfection & lentiviral or retroviral production is preferred
• Flow cytometry experience is strongly preferred
• Familiarity with library preparation, NGS workflows & data analysis is preferred
• Familiarity with python, R or similar programming language is advantageous, but not required
• Highly effective organizational and communication skills are essential