Under the general supervision of a faculty investigator or laboratory supervisor, we are seeking a casual Research Specialist II will be responsible for independently performing advanced laboratory assays and developing new assays/techniques related to ongoing research projects. The candidate will train students and junior staff to perform commonly used techniques and use good laboratory practice. The Research Specialist II will also support an ongoing Phase I/II clinical study of a novel vaccine. Will be primarily responsible for data collection and organization related to this clinical trial and will have a lead role in implementation of new bioinformatics approaches needed to conduct the preliminary data analysis. Will supervise junior laboratory staff to maintain a clinical specimen repository, auditable records, ensure study compliance and prepare for oversight reviews and visits. The candidate will also contribute to general maintenance of the laboratory, equipment and supplies. Will be primarily responsible for maintenance of the computer workstations in the laboratory.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Develop and perform advanced immunology assays under the supervision of faculty investigator. 
• Isolation and preparation of primary human leukocytes from blood.
• Maintaining immortalized human cell lines in tissue culture.
• Expansion and purification of viruses.
• Transcription analysis by PCR and RNA Seq.
• Assays for protein analysis including flow cytometry, ELISA, Western blot, and ELISpot.
• Implement bioinformatics approaches to data analysis.
• Training entry-level employees and student to perform the assays listed above.

Support a Phase I/II clinical study of a candidate HCV vaccine

• Implement bioinformatics approaches required analyze data. This includes writing code needed to maintain databases, analyze data and generate reports.
• Take the lead role in preliminary data analysis.
  
• Maintenance of a biorepository containing specimens from a staged Phase I/II clinical study of a completed HCV prophylactic vaccine including coordinating the logistics of shipping, receiving samples from multiple study sites, and maintenance of auditable records to ensure study compliance.
• Supervise the daily blood processing operations of the Viral Hepatitis Research Center (VHRC) laboratory.
• Responsible for the shipping of potentially pathogenic, Category B biological substances for all investigators in the VHRC.
• Perform ELISpot assays related to this clinical study.
• Perform primary data analysis for this clinical study.

Maintaining laboratory computer workstations

• Coordinating the maintenance, repair and upgrades of computer workstations.
• Updating software and maintaining software licenses.
• Liaising with Hopkins IT office as needed.

Additional duties

• Contribute where appropriate to the maintenance of lab equipment including CO2 tanks, tissue culture incubators, LN2 freezers, ultra-low temperature freezers, centrifuges, glassware washer and autoclave and preparation of solutions, reagents, and stains used in the laboratory.
• Utilize sophisticated instrumentation such as flow cytometer, luminometer, thermal cycler and laboratory automation solutions/robotics.
  
• Maintain accurate data records and laboratory notebooks.

• Bachelor's Degree in Biology, Chemistry or related field.
• Two years laboratory experience performing relevant techniques.
• Familiar with operating basic laboratory equipment such as centrifuge, pH meter, analytical balance, spectrophotometer, light microscope, plate washer and/or utilize biological safety cabinet.
  

• Master's Degree, with related graduate research, may substitute for experience to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.
  

Classified Title: Research Specialist II 
Role/Level/Range: ACRP/03/MB  
Starting Salary Range: $19.85 - $34.75 HRLY ($25.00 HRLY targeted; Commensurate with experience) 
Employee group: Casual / On Call 
Schedule: M-F, hours vary 
Exempt Status: Exempt 
Location: School of Medicine Campus 
Department name: ​​​​​​​SOM DOM Infectious Disease  
Personnel area: School of Medicine