PREP0002385 Synthetic Biology Technician

PREP Research Associate

Opportunity No.: PREP0002385

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, and thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

APPLY ONLINE HERE

Synthetic Biology Technician

The Biosystems and Biomaterials Division at NIST is seeking to hire a biology wet lab technician with expertise in synthetic biology. The person hired for this position will work with a multidisciplinary team to support the development and execution of a variety of biological measurements.

Key Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Support the NIST Engineering Biology program by executing experiments and overseeing general lab operations.  
• Maintain laboratory equipment and general lab supplies/consumables, with minimal oversight.  
• Work with the engineering biology team to prepare engineered microbial strains and DNA plasmids.
• Grow and characterize microorganisms and evaluate cellular properties.  
• Interact with team members with multidisciplinary backgrounds including biologists, engineers, statisticians, and computer scientists to facilitate protocol development.
• Prepare microbial culture media; sterilize labware; perform DNA cloning and transformations; extract nucleic acids for molecular detection methods including next-generation sequencing.  
• Keep consistent documentation and data entry.

Desired Qualifications:

• A Master’s degree in chemical engineering, bioengineering, cell biology, chemistry, physics, synthetic biology, or a related field.
• 3 years of relevant experience.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Other Details:

• Full-time: the participant is expected to work 40 hours a week.
• Location: the participant will work at the NIST Gaithersburg Campus.
• Duration: this is expected to be a two year position. Extensions are sometimes granted depending on the availability of funds.
• For questions related to the research project or the nature of the work in this position, please contact Dr. Elizabeth Strychalski (elizabeth .strychalski@nist.gov). For questions related to the online application or NIST PREP more generally, please contact Dr. John Brandau (john.brandau@morgan.edu).

Privacy Act Statement

Authority: 15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)

Purpose: The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor’s degree holders, graduate students, master’s degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate the administrative functions of the PREP Program.

Routine Uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates.

Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use the information you submit for the purpose stated.