The research assistant will be responsible for laboratory assistance, tissue culture, and animal maintenance for the Retina Research Laboratory. General laboratory duties will include ordering supplies, keeping records, and participating in general maintenance chores. Molecular biology techniques will include preparation of media and plates, DNA preparation from tissue samples, agarose gel electrophoresis, restriction digestion, cloning techniques necessary to build expression vectors, site-directed mutagenesis including oligonucleotide design, DNA sequence analysis, transgenic mouse genotyping and ordering laboratory supplies. Biochemical techniques will include Western blot studies for analyses of G-protein coupled receptor signaling, ELISAs, and immonyctochemistry. Typical tissue culture duties will include splitting, refeeding and harvesting cell lines for experimental purposes, freezing down cultured cell lines, transfection and viral transduction of cultured cells, and immunocytochemistry. Must be careful, organized, detail-oriented, and reliable. Must have excellent fine motor skills. Should have prior exposure to standard laboratory skills e.g. pipetting, preparation of buffer solutions, sterile cell culture etc. Must be able to learn specialized techniques with training by the supervisor. Prior job experience in biological research laboratory is preferable but not required. Should have science-related bachelor's degree, with a background in biochemistry and/or molecular biology. Prior education should include basic training in standard laboratory skills e.g. pipetting, preparation of buffer solutions, sterile cell culture etc.

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