Laboratory Research Assistant or Laboratory Research Specialist

The University of Maryland School of Medicine has an exciting opportunity for a Laboratory Research Assistant or Specialist to join Dr. Summer Thompson's team in the Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine. The selected candidate's title will be determined on their education and experience. This is a full-time, contractual position.

We are a new integrative behavioral neuroscience lab investigating the role of the environment and multiple body systems in individual differences in reward-related behaviors that are altered in psychiatric disorders, from fundamental learning and motivational processes up to complex decision making. We believe that this holistic perspective with an emphasis on precision behavior may provide novel treatment and prevention strategies for psychiatric disorders that could be tailored to individual bodies. We seek researchers who are excited about studying individual differences in behavior, reward, reinforcement learning, alcohol, the gut-brain axis, and/or neuroimmune signaling using integrative approaches who will contribute to a collaborative work climate.

The Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine brings together leading addiction experts to collaborate and create the synergy necessary for systemic change. University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty scientists serve as an integral part of the Institute. They include neuroscientists studying the brain mechanisms underlying addictions and physician educators working to train a new generation of medical students and residents. They also include clinicians providing a continuum of addiction care with evidence-based harm reduction measures that minimize the negative consequences of drug use on a patient's overall health.

Primary Duties - Laboratory Research Assistant

• Perform routine laboratory maintenance and research activities such as, but not exclusively: general housekeeping, wipe tests, molecular biology assays such as ELISA and qPCR, preparing solutions, and executing biochemical procedures such as electrophoresis, blotting, chromatography, DNA and RNA extractions, and protein purification.
• May perform advanced laboratory research activities such as microscopy techniques, imaging techniques, recombinant DNA techniques, and hybridizations.
• Perform routine experimental animal management and experimental tasks such as daily observations of animal health; collection of cultures and biological specimens; daily behavioral training or testing; daily management and recording of body weight, food, and fluid intake; administration of pharmacological or other agents; and animal colony management, including breeding and environmental enrichment. May also assist with advanced techniques such as animal surgery.
• May assist with constructing, customizing, testing, troubleshooting, repairing, maintaining, or cleaning of equipment, as well as ordering of required components and explaining/resolving technical issues.
• Administer day-to-day laboratory operations, including monitoring the budget, ordering supplies, ensuring quality control and safety compliance, developing policies and procedures, and coordinating with and managing documentation for regulatory bodies.
• Maintain meticulous, timely, and accurate records of all research activities and communicate them with supervisor and other lab members including presenting in lab meetings.
• Compile, analyze, and/or interpret research data using various relevant computer software applications such as Excel, Graphpad Prism, MATLAB, or R, and may include coding of custom scripts. Analysis may include computational modeling or bioinformatics approaches.
• Assist in the training of undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral, international fellows, and/or junior technical personnel in the performance of a variety of laboratory techniques.
• Assist with literature research, editing and preparing manuscripts, scientific illustrations and computer graphics for publication.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Primary Duties - Laboratory Research Specialist

In addition to performing the duties of the Lab Research Assistant, the Specialist may:

• Serve as a single specialist in a laboratory setting and provide advanced technical expertise to research project(s), including laboratory and animal techniques, study design, interpretation, and dissemination of findings.
• Perform PI-directed project(s) independently and participate in the design of research studies. Independently perform day-to-day laboratory research activities and proactively plan and advance the progress of projects.
• Establish and/or perform experiments involving advanced systems neuroscience approaches such as intracranial surgeries, fiber implantation, and fiber photometry.
• Conduct library research and participate in editing and preparing manuscripts, scientific illustrations, and computer graphics for publication. Contribute to the preparation of journal articles or grant proposals.
• Establish or develop standard operating protocols, novel experimental paradigms, custom equipment, or code/data analysis tools and pipelines.
• Train and assist undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral, international fellows, and/or junior technical personnel in the performance of a variety of laboratory techniques.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.