Research Technician - Term Biological Sciences - Behringer Lab

About the role

The TERM Research Technician is part of the Behringer Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. This position supports the research, organization, and day-to-day operations of the lab under the direction of Dr. Megan Behringer.

Responsibilities

• Manage the long-term culture of experimental populations including maintaining inventory of key media and reagents;
• Coincide with daily transfers, periodic screening for contamination, and collections at key timepoints;
• Ensure the glassware and spent cultures are appropriately sterilized.
• This is the major mission of the lab and underlies the majority of our investigation into how microbes adapt to stress.
• Perform nucleic acid extraction from long-term experimental cultures and prepare samples for submission to the genomic sequencing core facility.
• Help optimize new culture strategies to expand investigation to additional anerobic bacterial species.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s Degree in fields of Biology, Ecology/Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, or other related area;
• A minimum of 1 year research experience is required;
• Prior experience in bacterial culture is necessary;
• Prior experience in conducting DNA extraction is necessary;
• Prior experience working with anaerobic bacteria is preferred;
• Ability to work with others in a mutually respectful environment that values honesty, integrity, and accountability is necessary.

Supervisory Relationships

This position reports functionally to Dr. Megan Behringer and administratively to the departmental Administrative Manager.