The Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, Division of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics is seeking a Clinical Trials Research Assistant at 100% effort who will be responsible for several aspects of performing and analyzing experiments. This may include reviewing medical records to identify potential subjects with autism, recruiting and consenting participant families, managing data collected through the "BabySteps" research smartphone application, performing basic behavioral tests, arranging for blood collection, organizing previously acquired data, and analyzing results. Specifically, blood samples will be analyzed to look for changes in epigenetic patterns over time, comparing newborn blood spot samples with those collected at the time of diagnosis. This position offers a rewarding combination of involvement in cutting-edge research, patient communication and genetic and epigenetic analyses.

The Research Assistant will be supervised by Dr. Lane Strathearn in the Attachment and Neurodevelopment laboratory, located in the Center for Disabilities and Development. The research is part of the Hawkeye Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (Hawk-IDDRC), through the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). This is a specified term position.

Duties include, but are not limited to:

• Consult with researchers to assist in developing a data management plan; assist in the collection and tracking of study participant data, biological specimens, and study procedures.
• Design and coordinate field tests for data collection forms and assisting in design of certification procedures
• Conduct audit to assess quality assurance. Develop procedures for on-site data audits; participate in audits; design and generate reports for use in data audits; summarize results of audits and write reports.
• Recruit families with a child who is being evaluated for possible autism and healthy subjects as research participants.
• Establish participant eligibility on the study protocol.

For a full job description, please send an email to the contact listed below.

About the Department of Pediatrics:

The Stead Family Department of Pediatrics is a national leader in pediatric medicine. The Department's mission is to provide outstanding care to the children of Iowa and beyond by being a leader in state-of-the-art clinical care to children, performing cutting-edge research to find new treatments and cures for childhood illnesses, and educating the next generation of pediatric health care providers. The Department comprises the medical and research staff of UI Stead Family Children's Hospital. UI Stead Family Children's Hospital is one of the nation's top-ranked pediatric care and research institutions, and Iowa's only comprehensive children's hospital.

About the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics:

The Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) provides compassionate and state-of-the-art clinical care for children with a variety of challenges and difficulties, including developmental (cognitive, language, social, behavioral, motor) delays, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, hearing/vision impairments, ADHD, learning disorders (such as dyslexia), feeding disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, chronic pain syndromes, and cerebral palsy. The DBP Division also provides leadership for the UI Stead Family Children's Hospital Autism Center, which is a collaborative program of the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Psychiatry.

Required Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in a field relevant to life science or medical research such as psychology, biology, neuroscience, or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum of six months of prior research experience in a related field.
• Minimum of six months experience entering data and managing research databases according to best practice.
• Demonstrated ability to acquire new skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills are required.
• Demonstrated high level of organization with careful attention to detail is required.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with programming packages, such as R.

Highly Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience working with research subjects.
• Demonstrated experience with research subject recruitment
• Demonstrated coursework and aptitude in statistics (SPSS, graphpad, prism)
• Demonstrated experience in study design, data base design and/or data analysis

Position and Application details:

In order to be considered for an interview, applicants must upload the following documents and mark them as a "Relevant File" to the submission:

• Resume
• Cover Letter

Job openings are posted for a minimum of 14 calendar days and may be removed from posting and filled at any time after the original posting period has ended.

Successful candidates will be subject to a criminal background check and credential/education verification. Up to 5 professional references will be requested at a later step in the recruitment process.

For additional questions, please contact Pediatrics Human Resources at pedsuichildrenshr@uiowa.edu

This position is not eligible for University sponsorship for employment authorization.

The University of Iowa is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment free from discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, religion, associational preference, status as a qualified individual with a disability, or status as a protected veteran.