Research Associate - Tucker Lab

About the role

The University of Iowa Health Care Department of Visual Sciences is seeking a 100% Research Associate to serve as a member of a multidisciplinary laboratory focused on developing cellular and gene replacement therapies to treat patients with inherited retinal disease. This position will oversee the day-to-day maintenance activities of the Tucker Laboratory and manufacture AAV and lentiviruses for lab use.

Responsibilities

• Manufacture AAV and lentiviruses for use in the lab. This includes following SOPs for cloning, plasmid preparation, and transfection and purification of viral products, performing release testing, and maintaining a log/inventory of vectors produced.
• Maintain and differentiate human iPS cell lines for studying disease progression. This will include performing cell culture under aseptic technique, and following standardized protocols for iPSC maintenance, and retinal cell and RPE differentiation.
• Responsible for laboratory inventory. Includes electronic inventory management system (eLab), consumables ordering requests, and equipment repair and maintenance requests.
• Perform day-to-day lab tasks. This includes thawing, cleaning, and organizing cold storage units, scheduling repair/maintenance visits, cleaning and autoclaving lab dishes, aliquoting and inventorying antibodies, stocking supplies, store runs, etc.
• Pay close attention to detail.

Required Qualifications

• Requires the practical or academic knowledge of advanced laboratory procedures and an ability to translate, adapt and apply this knowledge that is generally associated with a Bachelor's degree and 3+ years of experience working in an academic research environment.
• Requires ability perform aseptic cell culture technique to maintain human iPSC and iPSC-derived retinal cell and RPE cultures.
• Ability to carry out standard molecular biology and biochemical techniques (e.g., nucleic acid and protein isolation from human and animal tissue samples, PCR/qPCR, and Western blot), common cell biology techniques (e.g., immunocytochemistry/immunohistochemistry), and tissue culture techniques (i.e., establishing and maintaining human iPSCs).
• Demonstrated ability at managing laboratory equipment and inventory.
• Must maintain detailed laboratory notes and be highly organized.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills are required.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with maintaining human iPSCs and differentiating retinal cells with xeno-free protocols.
• Ability to generate viral transgene expression plasmids, read Sanger sequencing and use DNA analysis software.
• Prior experience producing and purifying AAVs and/or lentiviruses preferred.

Schedule

Monday - Friday, 8:00a-5:00p. This position is performed fully on campus at UIHC, Iowa City.