PREP0004156 Bioelectronic Sensing Researcher

PREP Research Associate

Opportunity No.: PREP0004156

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

Bioelectronic Sensing Researcher

Project Description:

The Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD is searching for postdoctoral researchers who are motivated to develop novel electronic measurements of biomarkers. The development of chip scale assays for the accurate and sensitive measurements of biomarkers is critical to enable transformative point-of-care applications in personalized health care and drug discovery. To enable such applications, we develop bioelectronics measurements to identify and quantify biomarkers in solution. Our research utilizes CMOS device structures specifically designed and fabricated for biosensing. We are interested in developing robust interfaces to semiconductor devices that utilize DNA nanotechnology as well as other approaches to enable the measurements of nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules in a modular platform.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Design and assembly of DNA nanostructures
• Development of techniques and validation methods to verify the attachment of DNA nanostructures to semiconductor substrates
• Set up and development of instrumentation to support CMOS bioelectronic measurements
• Characterization of biotic-abiotic interfaces and surface chemistry

Desired Qualifications: 

• U.S. Citizens Preferred
• Ph.D. Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field
• Two years of relevant experience
• Expertise with electrochemical (e.g., EIS, cyclic voltammetry) or electrical measurements (e.g., capacitance), measurements of DNA nanostructures, or DNA by using CMOS detectors
• Experience in nanofabrication techniques and processes
• Data analysis with MATLAB, Mathematica, Python, or similar software
• 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 four month 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. Arvind Balijepalli (arvind.balijepalli@nist.gov). For questions related to the online application or NIST PREP more generally, please contact msu-nistprep@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.