Research Specialist RESEARCH NEUROLOGY FQ

Site: The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc.

 

Mass General Brigham relies on a wide range of professionals, including doctors, nurses, business people, tech experts, researchers, and systems analysts to advance our mission. As a not-for-profit, we support patient care, research, teaching, and community service, striving to provide exceptional care. We believe that high-performing teams drive groundbreaking medical discoveries and invite all applicants to join us and experience what it means to be part of Mass General Brigham.

 

 

Job Summary

Summary: Performs a variety of administrative and scientific activities necessary to support the research and academic responsibilities of the Research Laboratory. In addition to the routine administrative support duties, this includes independently drafting and submitting drug material transfer agreements and daily interactions with external industry representatives (scientific and legal) to facilitate the progress of material transfer agreements.

Does this position require Patient Care? No

Essential Functions:
- Works with laboratory staff and academic collaborators to draft and submit material transfer agreements for novel targeted therapies (obtained from Pharma or Biotech) that will be tested for antineoplastic and biological activities in the department.
- Develops proposals and study plans and coordinates the institutional and external reviews of these proposals.
- Responsible for supervising and performing drug sensitivity assays in various human cancer cell lines.
- These assays require substantial attention to detail and consistent methods and include evaluation of cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell-cycle perturbations by flow cytometry, and cell signaling perturbations by immunoblotting.
- Responsible for supervising routine reports of laboratory studies, particularly as stipulated in material transfer agreements or corporate-sponsored research agreements, to be distributed to industry scientific counterparts and to academic collaborators.
- Responsible for preparing summaries of laboratory studies for meeting presentations and for publications.
- Calculates, transcribes, and analyzes data using advanced statistical techniques.
- Reports on the progress of work at weekly laboratory seminars.
- Also, semi-autonomously write-up experimental work for grant applications, book chapters, and journal publications.

Key Responsibilities:
- Independently design, execute, and troubleshoot complex in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo experiments to evaluate therapeutic candidates targeting autoimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases.
- Lead the development, optimization, and implementation of molecular biology workflows, including cloning strategies, codon optimization, mutagenesis, and gene and protein expression analysis via qPCR, western blot and flow cytometry.
- Design and validate immunoassays (e.g., high-throughput ELISAs) to characterize antibody binding, species cross-reactivity, and receptor-ligand interactions.
- Participate in the formulation, QC, and preclinical testing of mRNA-based and non-viral delivery platforms, including lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems.
- Oversee rodent model experiments, including dosing (IV, IP, SC, PO), disease scoring, and multi-tissue harvests for transcriptomic and proteomic profiling.
- Interface cross-functionally to lead project initiatives, communicate experimental progress, and influence research direction based on data-driven insights.
- Serve as a mentor to junior scientists; provide guidance on experimental design, assay development, and scientific documentation.
- Prepare high-quality reports and presentations for internal stakeholders and external collaborators; contribute to regulatory documentation and intellectual property strategy.

 

Qualifications

Education:

• Master's Degree Related Field of Study required, preferably Molecular Biology or Biomedical Sciences
• PhD preferred

Experience:
Experience in an academic or laboratory research setting 3-5 years required

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Must be a problem solver willing to take the initiative and prioritize tasks, thereby ensuring the smooth and efficient conduct of several projects simultaneously.
• Ability to perform a variety of highly specialized cell culture and molecular biology procedures.
• A high degree of computer literacy in order to use various spreadsheet, database, accounting and word processing programs to assist in administrative, grant proposal preparation, and research reporting activities.
• Excellent organizational skills in order to formulate, implement, and monitor a number of interrelated tasks.
• Ability to exercise discretion and good judgment in handling of sensitive and c