Research Technician 2- Surgery (Knoxville)

Market Range: 05

Hiring Salary: $19.10/Hourly 

THIS IS A GRANT-FUNDED POSITION LOCATED IN KNOXVILLE, TN 

JOB SUMMARY/ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: The Research Technician 2 assists with conducting experiments related to inflammation, acute lung injury, islet transplantation, nutrition, and sepsis research. Additional duties include assisting with the establishment of a research program to foster basic research; organizing and maintaining laboratory equipment; helping to analyze, create, organize, and plot experiments; conducting literature searches, and giving research presentations.

1. Performs animal related duties including anesthesia administration, assisting in microsurgical procedures, pre-operative and post-operative care, blood collection, distribution of special diet as needed, weighing of animals, general animal handling, animal husbandry, and maintaining daily care notebook and surgical procedure notebook.
2. Conducts molecular and cellular biology assays, such as Western blot analysis, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), RNA/DNA isolation, immunohistochemistry, etc. in accordance with standard operating procedures.
3. Maintains viable tissues and cell cultures for in vitro experiments and performs phenotype response assays on living cultures. 
4. Feeds cultures to maintain viability, passages cell lines and splits culture populations, prepares culture populations for long-term storage in liquid nitrogen, administers experimental treatments to culture environments, and measures responsive elements, as appropriate. 
5. Performs data acquisitions and analyses and summarizes the results of all experiments in weekly lab meetings.
6. Presents experimental outcomes that aid in the preparation of manuscripts and grant proposal applications.
7. Prepares buffers and experimental reagents, washes glassware and non-consumable experimental supplies, maintains clean/organized flammable safety cabinets and chemical storage cabinets, autoclaves glassware, sterilizes and maintains microsurgical instruments, and provides general maintenance of laboratory bench areas and other workspaces. 
8. Orders laboratory supplies and research animals.
9. Performs other related duties as assigned.

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Science, Chemistry, or Science-related field. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED)

EXPERIENCE: OR a combination of education, training, and experience to equal four (4) years. Must be able to work with small animals/rodents. Must maintain IACUC (Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee) approval to use animals in research. 

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

• Demonstrates an understanding IACUC rules and regulations.
• Ability to implement rules and regulations within the laboratory. 
• Knowledge of standard cellular and molecular biology principles and basic science techniques. 
• Ability to implement knowledge of biological assays in an effective manner in practice. 
• Ability to assist in laboratory animal activities (survival and non-survival).
• Ability to be effective in data analysis and presentation using Statistical Software (GraphPad), Excel, and PowerPoint platforms.
• Skilled in standard laboratory techniques. 

WORK SCHEDULE:  This position may occasionally be required to work evenings and weekends