Senior Research Associate / Research Associate

Department Overview

The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, known as one of the pioneers in personalized cancer medicine, is an international leader in research and cancer treatment. Driven by its mission to end cancer as we know it, the institute is building upon its expertise in targeted treatments to advance the early detection of cancer when the disease is most treatable.

This position is a member of the Immune Monitoring and Cancer Omics Services (IMCO) and Knight Diagnostic Labs (KDL) at the Knight Cancer Institute.  It supports IMCO in the conduct of research in service to OHSU’s mission to improve human health, building and leveraging tools and biological understanding while working as part of the IMCO team.

 

Every Knight Cancer employee is expected to embody our guiding principles:

• We act BOLDLY—Breakthroughs require pushing the boundaries of science, exploring new frontiers, and thinking differently
• We SUPPORT each other—Respect leads to trust, which leads to excellence
• We work as a CONNECTED team — We must leverage our collective brain power to conquer cancer because no one individual can do it alone

Function/Duties of Position

The position encompasses wet lab responsibilities as well as project and lab management. Using scientific judgment and staining expertise, the ideal candidate will lead the multiplex immunohistochemistry (mIHC) experiments for IMCO. This position will be involved in experimental design encompassing staining, scanning imagaes and wet lab management in timely matter, as well as running computational analysis pipelines when needed. This position will oversee general organization of the lab and interact with computational biologists, SRAs and other IMCO team members as well as its clients.

 

Duties Include:

• mIHC project support. Conduct standardized IHC staining, including preparation of samples, staining, scanning and some analysis.
• Data Management: Clean, structure and store data.  Assist in building, populating and/or maintaining a searchable system for imaging data, sample metadata, data generation and data processing provenance, and custom analysis results.
• Data Analysis:  Provide processed data and technical support to computational biologists, biostatisticians, helping to identify technical factors in data generation and processing and supporting development of biological conclusions that drive the next generation of research and advance human health.
• Collaboration: Work with IMCO team members to understand and document requirements, communicate ongoing work, assist with interpretation of results in the multiplexed immunohistochemistry (mIHC) workflow. Work with all team members to build and maintain shared workflows and seamless services.  Work with team members to stain, scan and maintain image repository, bioinformatic code best practices and team engagement.
• Workflow Development: Assist platform development team implementing scalable high-performance workflows to support IMCO with analytical advances.  Assist with GLP-like documentation of all wet lab and analysis pipelines. 

Required Qualifications

• PhD in relevant field AND 1 year of relevant experience OR Master's Degree in relevant field AND 5 years of relevant experience OR Bachelor's Degree in relevant field AND 9 years of relevant experience OR Equivalent combination of training and experience
• Those with Master's Degree in relevant field AND 3 years of relevant experience OR Bachelor's Degree in relevant field AND 5 years of relevant experience OR Equivalent combination of training and experience will be considered at the Research Associate level
• Must have interest in immunology/cancer research and read relevant literature
• Must be willing to perform all of the techniques described, with training
• Demonstrated ability in IHC techniques
• Demonstrated ability in project management
• Understanding of basic statistics and some of its applications to biomedical science
• Experience with tools for managing imaging data
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks at one time
• Excellent communication, analytical and organizational skills:  both written and verbal
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team while being collaborative in resolving problems
• Intermediate skills with Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook, Access, Word, and PowerPoint) on Window OS. Ability to accurately type 60wpm
• Working knowledge of Oracle
• Must have demonstrated excellent customer service skills both on the phone and in person
• Must possess energy and drive to coordinate multiple projects simultaneously
• Ability to use tact and diplomacy to maintain effective working relationships

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree with course work or familiarity of commend line and mIHC staining techniques
• 2-4 year of experience in standard wet-lab IHC techniques and/or histology
• 2 years of mIHC staining experience, or 1 year of hands-on experience with generation or analysis of imaging data
• Experience with FIJI, and/or R or python
• At least 3 years of work experience in a professional, team-oriented research setting (wet or dry lab)
• Demonstrated expertise in IHC staining techniques and/or histology
• Demonstrated experience in project management and standardized workflow

Additional Details

Apply online. Please be sure to upload a Cover Letter and Resume/CV.

 

Effective Oct. 18, 2021, all OHSU employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they have an approved medical or religious exception. If you are hired by OHSU after Oct. 18, you will need to be fully vaccinated (or obtain an approved exception) prior to starting work, and need to provide proof of vaccination (or approved exception) within 10 days of starting work.

 

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All are welcome

Oregon Health & Science University values a diverse and culturally competent workforce. We are proud of our commitment to being an equal opportunity, affirmative action organization that does not discriminate against applicants on the basis of any protected class status, including disability status and protected veteran status. Individuals with diverse backgrounds and those who promote diversity and a culture of inclusion are encouraged to apply. To request reasonable accommodation contact the Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Department at 503-494-5148 or aaeo@ohsu.edu. As an organization devoted to the health and well-being of people in Oregon and beyond, OHSU requires its employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.