Research Lab Specialist Assoc

Posted: 30-Mar-26

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Categories: Staff/Administrative

Internal Number: 275568

The Prensner laboratory at the Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center is looking for an exceptional candidate for a unique Research Lab Specialist Associate position. This position affords the exciting opportunity to be part of a research effort aiming to dissect the genomic basis of cancer and its therapeutic implications.

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITY
The successful candidate will play a key role in advancing hypotheses generated from the lab’s work in the dark proteome as part of the Cancer Grand Challenges team ILLUMINE. The work will focus on supporting laboratory activities in -omics and molecular analyses of multiple cancer types.

This candidate will drive lab efforts to perform ribosome profiling, RNA-sequencing, and epitranscriptomic profiling in conjunction with multiple international and national collaborating labs as part of the Cancer Grand Challenges. He/she/they will employ molecular and biochemical techniques as well as tissue culture of cancerous and non-cancerous cells to model different cell states in these diseases.

The candidate is expected to work largely independently on a daily basis after training, but will be closely mentored by our senior laboratory staff.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Learn and execute existing protocols for ribosome profiling, RNA-sequencing and epitranscriptomic profiling. (50% effort)
• Learn and execute existing pipeline of tissue culture, in vitro bioassays, and small molecule treatments. (20% effort)
• Operates and maintains laboratory equipment to complete investigations. (5% effort)
• Prepares, orders, and maintains stocks of necessary reagents, solutions and supplies. (5% effort)
• Documents, compiles, and analyzes experimental data. Reports data to supervisor in oral and written reports. (5% effort)
• Attends team meetings and contributes to experimental planning. (5% effort)
• Assist project lead with interrogating large genomic and cell line data sets. (5% effort)
• Other related tasks as required. (5% effort)

Education

• Bachelor's or master's degree in the life sciences.
• Prior cell biology, molecular biology, and chemistry coursework.

Experience

• Bachelor's degree with at least 2 years of undergraduate research experience
• At least 1 year of post-undergraduate research experience is preferred but not required.

Skills and abilities

• Experience with mammalian cells and tissue culture is required.
• Experience with molecular techniques such as PCR, RNA extraction and DNA extraction, is required
• Exceptional organizational and critical thinking skills, lab notebook practices and attention to detail are critically essential.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to interact with all levels of staff and with external contacts are needed.
• Ability to handle a variety of tasks in a fast-paced environment, large complex experiments, and large data sets, all of which demand great attention to detail.
• Prior experience using lentivirus, CRISPR or RNAi is a plus.
• Basic computational skills are a plus.
• Ability and eagerness to learn in a self-motivating environment.