Staff Research Associate - UCSF Liver Center
Job Summary
The UCSF Liver Center (livercenter.ucsf.edu) operates several core facilities as part of its mission to support liver-related research programs at UCSF. The person who fills this position will provide high-quality technical services to clients of the Liver Center’s Liver Cell Isolation, Analysis & Immunology Core. The employee will implement established protocols for isolating and culturing primary cells from the liver, including both rodent and human livers. Cell isolation involves perfusion of livers with digestive enzymes to create crude cell suspensions, followed by a variety of methods for purifying the suspensions such as gradient centrifugation, MACS and centrifugal elutriation. The employee will also assist clients as needed to further purify and analyze some cell populations by FACS. Additional duties include cryopreservation of primary liver cells, propagation and cryostorage of a select number of immortalized liver cell lines, and biobanking explanted human liver tissue received from the UCSF Biospecimen Services Program. Finally, the employee may be called upon to train researchers or team members to perform liver cell isolations. To ensure smooth operation of the core facility, the incumbent will prepare and sterilize all instruments and solutions required for cell isolation and culture; maintain all relevant equipment (perfusion pumps, centrifuges, rotors, incubators, biosafety cabinets); order and receive supplies; maintain accurate records of completed work in iLab; keep up-to-date records of the cost of all work for recharge accounting; and assist with/stewardship of relevant IACUC and CHR protocols. The employee will interact with multiple clients within and outside UCSF.
Required Qualifications
- BA/BS in a related science and one or more years of recent, directly related work experience following degree completion, utilizing the techniques or methods required by the position; and/or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Demonstrated knowledge of chemistry, sufficient to prepare and pH laboratory solutions.
- Knowledge of sterile technique
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel