"Research Assistant II for Program in Memory & Longevity at UT Southwestern O'Donnell Brain Institute"

The newly established Program for Memory Longevity (PML), led by Attila Losonczy, MD, PhD, in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, is seeking a full-time Research Assistant II. This position supports neurobiological research focused on the organization of neural networks in the mammalian hippocampus and their role in learning and memory, both in the healthy brain and in models of neurogenerative diseases. The Initial appointment will be for one year with the possibility of renewal based on performance, progress towards research goals, and availability of funding.

Education: Minimum qualifications (one of the following)

• Master's degree in a relevant field and one (1) year experience as Research Assistant I or equivalent.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field and two (2) years of experience, including one (1) year as Research Assistant I or equivalent.
• Completion of two (2) years of college or specialized training in histology, serology, medical technology, etc., and five (5) years of experience, including one (1) year as Research Assistant I or equivalent.
• High school diploma with courses in basic sciences and seven (7) years of experience, including one (1) year as Research Assistant I or equivalent.

Description: This is a full-time technical position in a neurobiology laboratory focused on experimental neuroscience.

Primary duties:

• Assist with daily lab operations, including solution preparation, and general laboratory cleaning and maintenance.
• Maintain rodent colonies and perform genotyping.
• Conduct surgical procedures such as stereotactic virus injection procedures.
• Perform DNA construct assembly and characterization.
• Maintain primary and immortalized cell cultures.
• Perform cell transfection, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and transcriptomics in cultured cells and fixed tissue.
• Capture and analyze fluorescence microscopy images.
• Perform data analysis.

Required qualifications:

• Experience in rodent colony management and mouse genetics.
• Proficiency in buffer preparation, DNA and protein electrophoresis, cloning, PCR and protein expression optimization.
• Experience in immunohistochemistry and Western blotting.
• Excellent sterile technique.
• An equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with surgical techniques in rodents.
• Proficiency in generating, maintaining and transfecting primary and immortalized mammalian cells.
• Experience with biochemical analyses of protein function, including tissue and cell harvesting, subcellular fractionation and related assays.
• Advanced cloning and construct characterization skills.
• Experience in DNA/RNA/protein sequence analysis using relevant software.
• Experience in RNAseq studies and handling RNA samples.
• Experience with fluorescence microscopy.
• Experience using Matlab/Python or Labview for data analysis.

How to Apply: Send your CV, a brief description of the projects you’ve tackled, attila.losonczy@gmail.com. Review begins July 1, 2025.