University of Colorado Anschutz
Department: SOM, Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics

Job Title: Cryo-EM Operations Director (Senior Research Scientist)

Position #0084440: – Requisition #:38868

Job Summary:

The overall mission of the Cryo-EM Operations Director is to facilitate cryo-EM research at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, empowering new and experienced users to move their Cryo-EM research forward. The Operations Director will manage day-to-day operations at the Macromolecular Cryo-Electron Microscopy Shared Resource Facility, including EM specimen preparation and initial screening, operation of two state-of-the-art electron microscopes (120kV and 200kV), and EM data collection. Basic responsibilities will include daily instrument maintenance, facilitating automated EM data collection, and managing microscope time booking and billing. More importantly, the Operations Director will work with the Faculty Director to advise current and new facility users on all aspects of cryo-EM analysis, from specimen preparation to data collection and cryo-EM EM image processing. The Cryo-EM Operations Director will report to the Cryo-EM Facility Faculty Director.

Experienced Cryo-EM practitioners, especially those with some experience in Cryo-Electron Tomography specimen preparation and data analysis, are encouraged to apply.

Key Responsibilities:

·         Collaborate with and support Principal Investigators (PI) and other stakeholders on their EM research projects

·         Train new facility users

·         Prepare and screen stained and cryo EM samples

·         Set up and monitor automated EM data collection with CMOS and direct electron detectors

·         Guide facility users through initial steps of EM specimen and image screening and processing

·         Manage booking and billing for microscopes

·         Manage administrative requests related to billing and use

·         Routine maintenance and interaction with service engineers

·         Work with users and the Faculty Director to enhance and expand services offered by the Cryo-EM Facility

Work Location:

Onsite – this role is expected to work onsite and is located in Aurora, CO.

Why Join Us:

Our department conducts research across a wide biological scale for fundamental scientific understanding with applications to many disease contexts. The overarching goal is to reach a level of molecular insight that helps develop therapeutic approaches to disease.

As biochemists and molecular geneticists, we are amid an unprecedented time of discovery - our conception of the molecular biology of cells is going from the equivalent of grainy black-and-white to high-resolution technicolor. From deciphering the choreography of transcription complexes, chromosomes, and RNA molecules within cells to developing novel approaches to 3D molecular structure determination to understanding how viruses hijack a cell’s machinery and alter its metabolome, the researchers in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics (BMG) are at the forefront of their fields, conceptually and technologically.