Research Associate I, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Galveston)

University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) • Galveston, TX

74d

About The Position

The Zhao Research Group at UTMB is seeking a motivated Research Associate to join its interdisciplinary team. The group develops physics-informed AI methods for understanding biological systems, with applications in molecular biophysics, protein interactions, multi-omics integration, disease modeling, and therapeutic discovery. Its research combines structural biology, graph machine learning, protein language models, statistical physics, and systems biology to address biological questions and support drug discovery.

The successful candidate will perform standardized laboratory assignments and experiments and may contribute to computational biology projects involving AI and graph neural networks for protein-protein interaction prediction; physics-informed machine learning for protein binding affinity prediction; multi-scale modeling of molecular structures, protein interaction networks, and single-cell multi-omics; large language models and foundation models for biological systems; and AI-assisted therapeutic target discovery and disease network analysis.

Team members may contribute to method development, software engineering, scientific publications, conference presentations, and collaborative projects with UTMB investigators and other institutions. The group offers mentorship and opportunities for scientific and professional development, including for research associates interested in pursuing graduate training.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in basic science or equivalent; no experience required.
• Strong programming skills in Python.
• Excellent problem-solving ability and willingness to learn new computational methods.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively within a multidisciplinary team.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field.
• Experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Experience with graph neural networks, deep learning, large language models, or generative AI.
• Experience with computational biology, structural biology, bioinformatics, or biological data analysis.
• Experience with Linux, Git/GitHub, and high-performance computing.
• Familiarity with protein structures, molecular simulations, or omics datasets.
• GitHub profile or representative code repository (optional).

Responsibilities

• Under direct supervision, perform standard research assignments involving a series of related operations.
• Set up and conduct standard research experiments following detailed technical instructions.
• Prepare biological assays and conduct basic quantitative and qualitative analysis.
• Maintain records of tests performed and data collected.
• Assist in compiling and tabulating data and provide preliminary analysis.
• Assemble, calibrate, operate, and make minor modifications to laboratory equipment according to appropriate guidelines.
• Adhere to internal controls established for the department.
• Perform related duties as required.
• Contribute to computational biology research projects, method development, software engineering, scientific publications, conference presentations, and collaborative projects.

Benefits

• Mentorship and opportunities for scientific and professional development.
• Opportunities for graduate training for outstanding research associates interested in pursuing it.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level