Sr. Research Specialist-Hormone Core

Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center:  Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of diverse individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health recognizes that diversity is essential for excellence and innovation. We are committed to an inclusive environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your diversity of culture, thinking, learning, and leading is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

Organization:

Diab/Endo/Rheum/Imm Admin Core

Job Summary:

Perform research of a highly complex nature. Lead research projects and perform near to totally independent research. Exercise discretion and independent judgment to develop design of research to test hypotheses. Devise new or modify existing methods and develop procedures to meet new conditions.

Department Summary:

The Hormone Assay and Analytical Services Core (ASC), which includes Lipid and Oxidative Stress subcores, provides VDRC investigators with essential assays and analytical approaches that allow them to perform important and innovative research related to diabetes, obesity, and metabolism. These include measurement of hormones, cytokines, amino acids, lipids/lipoproteins, nucleotides, and markers of oxidant stress in biologic fluids and tissue samples. More recently, we have added the capability to qualify metabolic flux of glucose, glyceride and lipid by measuring the isotopic enrichment and isotopomer distribution and mass in cells, plasma and tissue samples. Finally, an important function of the ASC is method development, which not only enhances the spectrum of services offered, but ultimately also increases the impact by providing researchers with the opportunity to expand their research programs. The ASC works closely with the Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (MMPC) and the Islet and Pancreas Analysis (IPA) Core to coordinate animal experiments.

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KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Independently oversee research projects and perform near to totally independent research.
• Supervise, plan, design and implement research projects
• Establish protocol(s); define data collection, evaluation and analysis procedures
• Exercise discretion and independent judgment to develop methods and procedures for operation of complex scientific equipment.
• Supervise set-up and operation of various scientific experiments involving complex apparatus and equipment
• Contribute to research so as to merit serving as author or co-author on research publications, etc.
• Assist principal investigator in preparation of grant applications and contract proposals
• Present research findings as needed
• Responsible for plan and coordination of literature and library searches and data collection programs
• Develop reports of results, graphs, charts, tables, etc. of research findings
• Supervise writing, reviewing and editing of various materials for publication
• Provide supervisory responsibility to staff
• Train and supervise technical staff, medical and graduate students
• Provide technical guidance to students, pos-doctoral fellows and faculty as required
• Provide budget responsibility
• Make recommendations to principal investigator regarding staff, supply and equipment needs for research projects
• May monitor expenditures of funds
• Maintain open communication between department and others
• Open contact as needed with principal investigator, collaborating professionals, Purchasing, Human Resource Services, Space and Facilities Planning, asset management personnel, Environmental Health and Safety, Institutional Review Board staff, administrative staff relating to budget capabilities
• Contact as required with sponsoring agencies and/or cooperating facilities (e.g. V.A.), collaborating professionals and vendors

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

Our Academic Enterprise is one of the nation’s longest serving and most prestigious academic medical centers. Through its historic bond with Vanderbilt University and integral role in the School of Medicine, Vanderbilt Health cultivates distinguished research and educational programs to advance a clinical enterprise that provides compassionate and personalized care and support for millions of patients and family members each year.

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