Cell Assay Senior Scientist - Blue Sky Kinases

Conducts experiments/projects independently under overall direction of the Principal Investigator and/or more senior scientists. Designs and conducts studies to investigate specific basic science or clinical research questions within field of expertise. Develops procedures and participates in the publication of research results as necessary.

The World’s Brightest Minds Always Innovate  

At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, we know what can be achieved when the brightest scientific minds face the fewest barriers. That’s why we provide world-class facilities. State-of-the-art technologies. Extraordinary support. And a collaborative, bench-to-bedside environment where you can see, firsthand, how your science translates into survival for the children we serve. Quite simply, at St. Jude, we encourage you to dream big and stop at nothing when it comes to finding cures and saving children. 

The candidate will work in a team based environment to integrate novel structural insights with cell biology to study multiple kinase targets in a dynamic, comprehensive, inter-disciplinary initiative at the Department of Structural Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The Blue Sky Initiative "Seeing the Invisible in Protein Kinases" is supported by US $50 million in institutional funding. This large-scale project aims to leverage ultra-high field Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), complemented with cryoEM, X-ray crystallography, data-science and computational approaches, to characterize the conformational landscape of the human kinome. This initiative will have a profound impact on the field, transforming our understanding of protein kinases and creating new therapeutic opportunities.

The candidate will use their molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell culture skills to support signal transduction pathway analyses and novel kinase inhibitor development to understand how different kinase conformations contribute to the transduction of signals within a cell.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and perform cellular assays to characterize novel kinase conformations and inhibitors.
• Interpret, analyze, and communicate cell-based assay results with team collaborators, aiding in the optimization and development of these hits.
• Perform and quantify bioanalytical and cell-based assays.
• Immunoassays (e.g. ELISA, AlphaLISA, Mesoscale discovery).
• Western blots, protein-protein interaction assays, flow cytometry, reporter assays.
• Generate tissue culture-cell lines using CRISPR or similar technologies.
• Develop and execute target-specific assays, pathway-specific assays, reporter assays, and phenotype assays for inhibitor characterization.
• Tissue culture-cell line generation employing CRISPR or similar technologies.
• Contribute to assay development process, including designing, optimizing, and conducting medium and high throughput cellular assays.
• Perform statistical analysis and proficiently use graphing software or R scripts.

​Successful Candidates Will Have:

• Experience in analysis of protein kinases/phosphorylation dependent signaling mechanisms and/or cellular signaling pathways.
• Hands-on experience with cell-based assay techniques for studying cancer cell vulnerabilities and targets' mechanisms of action, including but not limited to proliferation assays, microscopy, protein and RNA analysis, flow cytometry, and qPCR.
• Expertise in genetic (CRISPR and RNAi) and pharmacological (small molecules) perturbations.
• Proficiency in experimental design, assay development, execution of experiments, data analysis, interpretation, and presentation.
• Experience with lab automation for HT assays.
• Experience with mouse models is preferred but not essential.

Competencies:

• Creative and result-driven, with strong critical thinking and quick learning abilities.
• Hardworking, well-organized, flexible, and capable of multitasking efficiently in a fast-paced environment.
• Able to work collaboratively and efficiently in teams with diverse backgrounds and opinions.
• Ability to prioritize work and complete assignments promptly.

Minimum Education and/or Training:

• Bachelor's degree in relevant scientific area is required for either level.

Minimum Experience:

• Ten (10) years of relevant work experience