Research Technician II & III Positions at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas)

The Wythe Lab is currently seeking multiple research technicians to join our team to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the basis of vascular malformations and cardiovascular disease, with a focus on studying the vasculature in the brain and heart. The Research Technician II and III will be a self starter, motivated to learn new techniques, organized, and works well in a team environment, with excellent organizational skills and a good understanding of basic molecular biology or biochemistry. An added bonus is if the applicant is experienced working with cell culture models, zebrafish, or mice. This Research Technician II and III positions are ideal for graduating seniors with lab experience looking to take a year or two off before medical school or graduate school that would like to publish papers and get extensive research experience to improve their application package, as well as those who are looking to move into a project management/independent research technician position.

Job Duties:

• Includes recombinant DNA cloning (restriction enzyme, Gibson assembly, Cold Fusion cloning, Gateway cloning), basic manipulation of mouse embryos (dissection, IHC, RNA isolation, etc), maintenance of a mouse colony (husbandry, genotyping, etc), and use of a variety of developmental biology, cell culture, immunohistochemical and molecular biology techniques to analyze tissues and cells in order to understand how endothelial cells differentiate into arterial and venous cells during development and how blood vessels form and function in various disease models.
• Independently perform and execute successful experiments, and perform routine lab maintenance and organization. A lack of mouse experience can be offset by advanced skills in cell culture and biochemistry or cell-based assays, or extensive experience with zebrafish husbandry and embryology.
• Data Analyses and Presentation.  Simple data analysis in excel spreadsheet format by performing arithmetical operations (multiplication, division, etc) on a set of data points, as well as obtaining the mean, standard deviation, and standard error of a sample set.  Results would be plotted on  using software such as Graphpad (PRISM). Candidates will be expected to present their results in PPT, make figures in Adobe Illustrator, and write up method and results for publications.
• Train undergraduates and summer interns, graduate students, as well as other junior scientists within the laboratory (as needed)
• Opportunities exist for 3D imaging and analyses (lightsheet data and micro-CT data), as well as single cell and bulk RNA-seq and informatic analyses (R, python, etc.), as related to understanding disease pathogenesis.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a Basic Science (biology, molecular biology, pre-med, zoology, biochemistry, neuroscience, etc) or related field (informatics/computational biology) with at least 1 year full-time laboratory experience (or equivalent).
• Proficiency with the Microsoft office suite (excel, word, powerpoint) and computers in general are essential.
• Rigorous attention to detail, excellent organization and record keeping skills are essential.

Preferred Qualifications:

• At least one year of full time work in a molecular biology lab and familiarity with standard molecular biology techniques (PCR, restriction cloning, DNA cloning,agarose gel electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, Western, blot, etc.).
• 1 year of experience with mouse or zebrafish colony maintenance, husbandry, and PCR-based genotyping for a mouse colony >100 cages is essential.
• Fundamental knowledge of basic molecular biology.
• Familiarity with FileMaker pro is beneficial.
• Ability to learn and employ new software for record keeping and database management.