Research Associate - Mellon College of Science - Biological Sciences

Carnegie Mellon University•Pittsburgh, PA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Mellon College of Science (MCS) at Carnegie Mellon University is seeking a Research Associate to join the Biological Sciences department. This role will support biology research projects focusing on molecular biology, cell biology, genomics, transcriptomics, and computational biology. The position involves contributing to both wet-lab experimental workflows and bioinformatics analysis of high-throughput sequencing datasets.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Bioinformatics, Quantitative Biology, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, or a related field required.
1-3 years of research experience in a laboratory in bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, or related biology research.
Research experience involving wet-lab molecular biology, cell biology techniques and bioinformatics analysis of high-throughput sequencing data, such as RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, Ribo-seq, ATAC-seq, or alternative splicing analysis.
Successful completion of a pre-employment background check.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.
Training or certification in laboratory safety, biosafety, and animal research is preferred.
A combination of education and proven experience from which comparable knowledge is demonstrated may be considered.

Responsibilities

Perform molecular biology and genomics-related laboratory procedures including sample preparation, nucleic acid extraction, PCR-based assays, protein assays, cell culture support, bacterial culture, plasmid preparation, and related experimental workflows.
Assist with animal and tissue-based research workflows, including mouse model support, mouse dissection, tissue collection, sample labeling and storage, and coordination of downstream molecular assays.
Process, analyze, and interpret high-throughput sequencing datasets, including RNA-seq, Ribo-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and ATAC-seq data.
Build, execute, and maintain reproducible computational workflows for quality control, read alignment, differential expression analysis, and data visualization.
Generate figures, tables, written summaries, and presentation materials for laboratory meetings, research reports.
Maintain accurate and detailed records of experimental procedures, sequencing datasets, analysis scripts, computational results, and project documentation.
Communicate research progress, technical issues, and analysis results clearly to supervisors and collaborators.
Collaborate with faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and other laboratory staff on interdisciplinary research projects.
Support sequencing analysis related to gene expression and translational regulation.
Analyze single-cell datasets to characterize cell populations and disease-related features.
Develop and maintain reproducible analysis pipelines using R and Python.
Use bioinformatics tools and computing environments such as IGV, Linux/Unix, and related software.