Bioengineering Scientist

Axle•Rockville, MD

10d

About The Position

Axle is a bioscience and information technology company that offers advancements in translational research, biomedical informatics, and data science applications to research centers and healthcare organizations around the globe. With experts in biomedical science, software engineering, and program management, we focus on developing and applying research tools and techniques to empower decision-making and accelerate research discoveries. We work with some of the top research organizations and facilities in the country including multiple institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Axle is looking to add a driven, flexible, organized, and meticulous Bioengineering Scientist to our dynamic team. The Contractor(s) shall provide services in support of the overall functions of the Virus Persistence and Dynamic Section (VPDS), Vaccine Research Center (VRC).

Requirements

Ph.D. in bioengineering, mechanical engineering, or physics and 2+ years of experience.
Professional competency with design and fabrication of microfluidic devices, including flow-based droplet generators, using soft lithography (i.e., template design/production and device generation in polydimethylsiloxane [PDMS]) and glass fabrication techniques
Professional competency with operation of the Pacific Biosciences Revio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencer platform
Professional competency with basic bioinformatic and evolutionary biology tools for sequence analysis, including current softwares for database searches, multiple sequence alignment generation, and phylogenetic inference
Professional competency with RNA extraction from human blood and body fluid samples, reverse transcription, polymerase chain reaction, and sequencing library preparation and quality control
Intensive experience with laboratory automation, including liquid handling systems
Experience with the application of complex bioinformatic pipelines for next-generation sequence data analysis
Working understanding of human immunology, with emphasis on innate and adaptive antiviral host responses
Track record of high-profile, peer-reviewed, first-author publication in the field of bioengineering
Track record of high-profile, peer-reviewed, first-author publication in the field of virus evolution
Track record of high-impact publications related to RNA virus infections

Responsibilities

Develop microfluidics-based approaches for analysis of intra-host virus diversity and evolution, such as:
An approach for high-throughput, single-copy, full-length sequencing of purified virus genomes, to include the following:
Optimized virus inactivation and nucleic acid extraction procedures from blood and body fluids
Customized microfluidic devices, regimes of operation, and reagents that partition extracted virus genomes in aqueous solution into monodisperse water-in-oil emulsions and thus enable downstream single-copy analysis
An approach for high-throughput sequencing of individual intact virions, to include the following:
Non-destructive procedures for abrogating the infectivity of intact virions in suspension
Customized microfluidic devices, regimes of operation, and reagents that can partition single-virion suspensions into water-in-oil emulsions at limiting dilution and thus enable downstream single-virion analysis
Maintain records of all work using appropriate electronic systems
Present results at internal and external meetings
Collaborate with NIH and non-NIH scientists
Train other NIH scientists in methods under development
Contribute to original research manuscripts describing findings