DESCRIPTION

The UCSD Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (CMM) is one of two basic science units in the School of Medicine where world-class researchers study fundamental cellular processes and pathways using a variety of techniques from classical genetics and fluorescence microscopy to high-throughput genomics, systems biology, and crystallography. Our 36 faculty and over 200 postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and research staff work on the cutting edge of biology, cutting across fields from basic biochemistry and genetics to genomics, systems biology and stem cell biology. The faculty also play a major role in medical and graduate student training, providing educational and programmatic offerings that span several disciplines and provide diversity to meet the interests of a broad spectrum of students and scholars. We constantly seek to recruit highly motivated, technologically-advanced, and deeply interested individuals who are ready to become a part of our dynamic research and educational environment.

Dr. Reck-Peterson's laboratory studies the mechanisms of microtubule-based transport within cells. The microtubule cytoskeleton and associated transport machinery is responsible for organizing intracellular contents spatially and temporally. The Reck-Peterson lab strives to understand how this system works at molecular, cellular, and organismal scales, and to determine why defects in transport cause neurological diseases, including Parkinson's Disease. They use a combination of approaches including protein biochemistry and in vitro reconstitution, single-molecule biophysics, proteomics, fungal genetics, mammalian cell culture including of iPSCs, gene-editing of mammalian cells, and state-of-the-art live-cell imaging. Through collaborations they have access to cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography to pursue structural studies of the transport machinery.

The Senior Scientist will be responsible for contributing broadly to the Reck-Peterson lab's research program. Ideal candidates will be confident and comfortable managing the lab during the PI's travel or absence, and have a strong desire to serve as a trusted resource for the other staff within the lab.

The Senior Scientist will support the collaborative research environment and provide guidance on technical and operational aspects of research. They will develop and implement research projects, as well as identify methodological problems in research protocols and develop solutions to those problems. They will review research activities to determine where new information, methods, or collaborations could positively impact projects. They will routinely develop innovative techniques to meet research goals, and may coordinate and train lab members on specialized research methods such as, in vitro reconstitution, and gene-editing cell lines. They will assemble, format and/or perform statistical analyses of data.

In addition, the Senior Scientist will mentor graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, Research Associates, undergraduate students, and other staff. They will train others in the use of specialized equipment as necessary – such as plate readers, TIRF microscopes, and spinning-disk confocal microscopes. They will read and review scientific literature, write and edit manuscripts, fellowship applications, progress reports, and grants.

Along with other duties as assigned by the Principal Investigator, the candidate will serve as the senior member of the lab, acting as a resource for both students and staff for a variety of issues.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree in biological, biochemical, biophysical sciences or related area.

• A minimum of five (5+) or more years of relevant experience.

• Focus of knowledge and skills dependent on area of specialty (laboratory research or instructional/experimental design). Advanced and highly specific knowledge and expertise associated with conducting and reporting on scientific research experiments and findings.

• Expertise in: live-cell microscopy and image analysis, total internal reflection microscopy and analysis of single-molecule images, biochemical purification, including use of FPLCs and SEC-MALS, mammalian and insect cell culture and transfections, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, cell biology of the cytoskeleton and intracellular trafficking, m