Senior Research Associate, Immunohistochemistry
South San Francisco, CA
Our client is a venture capital-backed, early-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing non-viral gene therapies to address diseases with significant unmet needs. Their Gene Therapy group adopts a collaborative, multidisciplinary, and innovative approach to tackling the challenges in genetic medicine and drug development.
Job Description:
Our client’s Gene Therapy group is looking to hire a Research Associate/Senior Research Associate to play a key role in their gene therapy development efforts. The ideal candidate should be a critical thinker with a strong desire to learn and master new techniques, possessing flexibility and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment. The position involves broad technical responsibilities in immunohistochemistry and image analysis, contributing significantly to the characterization of transgenic constructs in both animal tissues and cellular models. The candidate will also be responsible for developing and optimizing antibody staining protocols for transgene and cell marker detection, as well as implementing quantitative image analysis methods.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in biological sciences (e.g., Genetics, Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Physiology, or related field) with 2-5 years of relevant post-graduate research experience, ideally in an industry setting.
- Creative mindset with the ability to collaborate effectively within interdisciplinary teams to meet both technical and corporate goals.
- Strong communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Technical Requirements and Skills:
- Demonstrated expertise in developing and performing both chromogenic and fluorescence immunohistochemistry staining, imaging, and analysis.
- Extensive experience with antibody screening and selection for cell-type identification and reporter expression.
- Proficiency in handling multiple tissue preparations (e.g., FFPE, fixed-frozen, fresh-frozen) and diverse tissue types (e.g., mouse, NHP).
- Experience using high-throughput methods such as autostainers (e.g., Leica Bond) and slide scanners (e.g., Evident VS200).
- Proficiency in quantitative image analysis software, including Visiopharm, HALO, Imaris, ImageJ, and QuPath; familiarity with image analysis automation is a plus.
- Experience in creating data summary plots (e.g., using GraphPad Prism) and preparing slides for presentation.
- Knowledge of electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) like Benchling, as well as molecular biology techniques such as RNAscope/ISH, ddPCR, qPCR, Olink-based proteomics, MSD, protein isolation, and Western blotting.
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail for data management and record-keeping.