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Research Associate II, Konermann Lab

Palo Alto, CA

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 has scaled to nearly 300 people to date. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly in the coming years.

About the position

We are seeking a Research Associate II to join the Konermann Laboratory at the Arc Institute.You will collaborate closely with experienced scientists to advance in vitro and in vivo projects focused on understanding brain development.

This project builds on previous work in genome-scale CRISPR screening (Konermann et al., 2015; Biering et al., 2021; Wei et al., 2023) and aims at combining modern functional genomics and neuroscience tools to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying brain development and function. The ideal candidate will have experience in molecular biology, single cell RNA sequencing pipelines, in vitro and in vivo work. This position offers an excellent opportunity for candidates considering PhD programs, as you will participate in all stages of a research project under the guidance of experienced scientists.

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 are detail-oriented. You are careful and diligent about good documentation practices, good lab practices, and overall obsessed with keeping things organized. 
  • You love to collaborate and help others. Science is a team effort and you pride yourself in taking the initiative to help out. 
  • You are a problem solver. Science isn’t perfect and it’s common for you to come across issues you need to troubleshoot. You demonstrate patience and confidence when solving complex technical challenges in the laboratory.

 In this position, you will:

  • Collaborate closely with senior scientists and RAs in the laboratory to conduct high-throughput CRISPR experiments 
  • Utilize a wide array of high-throughput molecular biology techniques, such as Gibson and Golden gate assembly, DNA/RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, qPCR/dPCR, and more
  • Independently conduct NGS library prep methods (single cell, bulk: long and short read).
  • 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. 

Job Requirements

  • BS with 2+ years of relevant experience or MS in molecular biology, neuroscience, or another relevant field. Relevant experience includes independent lab work during undergraduate studies. Strong hands-on experience with molecular biology (cloning and NGS) required. 
  • Detail-oriented with excellent organizational and time management skills.
  • Outstanding critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
  • Strong oral and written communication skills.
  • Be both a strong individual contributor as well as a collaborative team member.
  • Ability to work some weekends as needed (days off can be swapped for weekdays).
  • Highly motivated, curious, and a team player

Preferred Skills

  • Experience with human stem cell work and/or in vivo mouse work is preferred but not required for the role. 
  • Experience with computational skills including scRNA-seq analysis is desirable.

The base salary for this position is $75,900. This amount does not include benefits or other forms of compensation.

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