About the roleDo you love neurons? So do we. Neurons are at the heart of Merge Labs. They are the primary testing ground and ultimate application domain for our molecular biosensors and actuators. To effectively develop our genetic constructs and physical approaches, we need to be great at culturing and using neurons in our experimental pipelines. As our Neuron Whisperer, you will be responsible for establishing and executing methods to provide high-quality neurons for screening and validation workflows. You will optimize harvesting, differentiation, transfection/transduction and maintenance. You will be an active participant in our science, providing input into research design and working with program teams to identify neuron needs and workflows (some of which will be unusual!) and helping make them happen. You will collaborate with automation engineers, data scientists and other platform scientists to make things better, faster and more reproducible to enable rapid scientific progress.
In this role, you will:- Take responsibility for neuronal culture at Merge Labs.
- Define and prioritize neural culture needs across research programs.
- Establish and execute the culture of primary rodent neurons.
- Establish and execute the differentiation and culture of iPSC-derived human neurons.
- Produce and maintain 3D neuronal cultures such as in hydrogel scaffolds, spheroids and/or organoids.
- Optimize methods for transfection and transduction of neurons in the above formats.
- Establish and execute assays to characterize and ensure consistent neuronal health and quality.
- Optimize protocols for (sometimes unusual) culture requirements needed to enable specific experiments, including high-throughput screens.
- Work with automation engineers to reduce hands-on time and further improve consistency for the above methods.
- Provide input into research strategy, experiment design and analysis as the in-house neuron expert.
- Scope and acquire instruments and reagents as needed to support the above workflows.
- Collaborate with data science/ML engineers to integrate protocols, measurements, requests and handoffs with laboratory information systems.
- Conceive, design and validate ideas for how to increase throughput and quality.
- Extend capabilities into organotypic slice culture.
- Recruit and manage research associates as needed to meet research program demand.
You might thrive in this role if you:- Deeply love neurons (and the cells that support them).
- Have a extensive experience culturing, differentiating and transfecting/transducing neurons (primary, iPSC and ideally 3D) and assaying their quality.
- Have demonstrated the ability to optimize protocols and improve quality and efficiency.
- Are excited about providing critical input reagents to support research.
- Are excited about serving as a subject matter expert collaborating with research teams on research strategy, experiment design and analysis.
- Love doing hands-on work in the lab.
- Enjoy learning new science, doing things that are unusual and developing new capabilities.
- Have worked in a fast-paced biotech/techbio, ideally startup, environment and loved it.
- Have strong communication skills and enjoy collaborating with researchers to help them accelerate their projects.
Nice to have:- Experience with high throughput screening and automation.
- Experience with organotypic slices.
If you're excited about this role but don't meet every qualification, please apply. As we build, we're hiring for complementary strengths to form a high-impact team.
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