Senior Research Associate - 138107

The pathology of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases is not completely understood. Novel therapies require precise biomarkers and identifying indicators of disease progression and therapeutic efficacy. Collecting deeply phenotyped biosamples and sharing them with the scientific community is crucial to advance towards the cure for these devastating disorders.

The work is focused on supporting biomarker discovery and development work and assisting with the biorepository management, in addition to perform biochemical and behavioral studies on animal model of neurodegeneration.

The Senior Research Associate will manage and coordinate research efforts with other collaborators both within and outside the laboratory. They will independently conceive, plan, and conduct research projects based on reviews of scientific literature and recent advances in related fields, organizing and executing all techniques involved. They will contribute novel ideas of major methodological significance to the research projects, design key experiments, and develop new techniques. They will author or co-author scientific journal manuscripts and contribute to grant writing. They will direct and advise the work of technicians and students, and will also contribute to functions necessary for the regular functioning of the lab, including administrative and maintenance tasks, ensure compliance with safety and regulatory norms, and aid in managing the biorepository, selecting, collecting and shipping samples to requestors.

• Advanced theoretical knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases, epigenomics, regulation of gene transcription, circadian biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology as typically achieved by an advanced college degree and work experience.

• Proven record of successful administration of large biosample collections.

• Proficiency managing large sample inventories.

• Proven experience training and managing undergraduate students.

• Expertise conducting molecular biology assays.

• Strong demonstrated experience in live- and fixed-cell imaging using confocal microscopy.

• Strong demonstrated experience in surgery on small animals like rodents.

• Proven experience and advanced skills in data analysis, including designing, coordinating, executing, and analyzing data from large sequencing projects and array analysis. Knowledge of the most commonly used bioinformatic tools and capacity to defined new pipelines and apply packages for analysis in R.

• Advanced skill in experimental design and adaptation of methods to achieve results. Demonstrated experience in integrating data from multiple sources to synthesize conclusions. Knowledge and ability to read and abstract scientific articles and apply to the design of experiments.

• Experience in providing technical work direction and training of students, post-docs, and technicians.

• Proven experience and knowledge in developing hypotheses, design experiments, conduct experiments, analyze data, write manuscripts, and publish results in peer-reviewed journals, including all interactions with Reviewers and Editors.

• Demonstrated experience in working with collaborators in other universities on joint projects, and working under milestones driven projects, including knowledge in writing reports.

• Strong organizational skills, including experience in laboratory record keeping, budget analysis and managing logistics. Demonstrated knowledge of lab safety rules.

• Proven experience in contributing and implementing lab safety and compiling with institutional regulations.

• Proven ability to read scientific papers and adapt knowledge and techniques from the literature to experimental systems.

• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills including tack, diplomacy, and flexibility in order to work and interact effectively with staff, researchers, and management in person, on the phone or via Zoom or other video conferencing platforms.

• Knowledge of PC software applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote, Illustrator to produce reports, correspondence, graphs, and spreadsheets to generate, track, and analyze data.

• Experience in managing the hiring and day-to-day work-flow of volunteers, undergraduate students and research technicians.

• Prior experience performing research in a lab that studies molecular alterations in neurodegenerative diseases, including transcriptional and cell biology analysis

• Experience in performing behavior phenotyping in animal models of neurodegeneration.

• Ability to independently analyze data from circadian cage activity and behavior and memory tasks.

• A PhD in a field related to cell biology, biochemistry or neuroscience.

• Experience with UCSD regulations, policies, and procedures.

• Experience with UCSD lab safety protocols

• Strong demonstrated experience in AAV preparation and experience in culturing, editing and differentiating human iPS cells.

• Demonstrated experience in the official review of manuscripts for publication in peer-review journals.

• Employment is subject to a criminal background check.

• Must be willing to work with hazardous materials.