About Arc Institute

 

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution conducting curiosity-driven basic science and technology development to understand and treat complex human diseases. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is an independent research organization founded on the belief that many important research programs will be enabled by new institutional models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley.

 

While the prevailing university research model has yielded many tremendous successes, we believe in the importance of institutional experimentation as a way to make progress. These include:

 

  • Funding: Arc fully funds Core Investigators’ (PIs’) research groups, liberating scientists from the typical constraints of project-based external grants.
  • Technology: Biomedical research has become increasingly dependent on complex tooling. Arc Technology Centers develop, optimize and deploy rapidly advancing experimental and computational technologies in collaboration with Core Investigators. 
  • Support: Arc aims to provide first-class support—operationally, financially and scientifically—that will enable scientists to pursue long-term high risk, high reward research that can meaningfully advance progress in disease cures, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune dysfunction.
  • Culture: We believe that culture matters enormously in science and that excellence is difficult to sustain. We aim to create a culture that is focused on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, broad ambition, and selfless collaboration.

 

Arc scaled to nearly 100 people in its first year. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly to several hundred in the coming years.

 

About the position

We are seeking a Research Associate II to join the Hsu laboratory at the Arc Institute. In this position, you will contribute to developing the next generation of platform technologies for genome engineering and biological programming, and gain expertise in initiating and interpreting high throughput screens. 

 

You will have the opportunity to work with world-leading scientists in relevant fields, including CRISPR technologies, computational biology, and single-cell genomics. This position offers a unique chance for a highly motivated and curious researcher to work on cutting-edge molecular technologies. Some of the relevant projects extend from our recent work in systematically characterizing new enzyme families for genome design and editing, including programmable bridge recombinases and large serine recombinases. 

 

This is also a great stepping stone for candidates looking to enroll in a PhD program in the future, as you will be involved in designing projects from the ground up and co-authoring papers (past RAs in the lab have been admitted for PhD studies at Harvard, UC Berkeley, UCSF, Stanford, MIT, etc.). The ideal candidate must have a strong background in molecular biology and will learn to apply their skills to building novel molecular technologies.

 

About you

  • You love science and learning. Whether it’s gaining knowledge in new fields of scientific research or learning a new lab technique, you never stop being curious and routinely enjoy stepping out of your comfort zone to learn new things. 
  • You can work fast and are detail-oriented. You are careful and diligent about good documentation practices and keeping things organized while moving at a rapid pace. 
  • You love to collaborate and help others. Science is a team effort, and you pride yourself in taking the initiative to help. 
  • You are a problem solver. Building new technologies comes with issues you need to troubleshoot. You pride yourself in your ability to troubleshoot complex problems in the lab.

 

In this position, you will

 

  • Utilize a wide array of high-throughput molecular biology techniques, such as Gibson and Golden gate assembly, DNA/RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, qPCR, ddPCR, NGS sample preparation, and more
  • Conduct tissue culture and transfection-based experiments, including flow cytometry readouts
  • Conduct protein purification experiments
  • Assist with research planning, execution, analysis, troubleshooting, and data interpretation with a high degree of independence and continued support from the rest of the team 
  • Analyze and present data at subgroup meetings and seminars
  • Maintain an organized and detailed lab notebook

 

Requirements

  • BS/MS or equivalent professional experience in cell & molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, or any relevant field
  • 2+ years of relevant experience
  • Extensive experience with standard molecular biology techniques including cloning, PCR, qPCR, NGS library preparation, Sanger sequencing
  • Proficiency with mammalian cell culture and transfections
  • Familiarity with protein purification and high throughput screening is preferred
  • Highly motivated, curious, and a team player

 

The base salary for this position is $73,700. This amount does not include benefits or other forms of compensation.

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