Technical Research Assistant I

Mass General Brigham•Boston, MA

17d•$21 - $29•Onsite

About The Position

Join the Santagata Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) to support a multidisciplinary research program developing targeted therapies for rare pediatric and adult brain tumors. The work focuses on identifying and validating therapeutically actionable cell-surface proteins, particularly targets for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and other emerging targeted therapies. The program addresses challenges including limited tissue availability, biological heterogeneity, and a lack of effective targeted treatments for rare brain tumors. The role uses advanced tissue-imaging and spatial molecular technologies to quantitatively characterize therapeutic targets in patient tumor specimens and patient-derived models. Methods include cyclic immunofluorescence (CyCIF), ORION whole-slide multiplexed imaging, conventional immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, and integration with spatial transcriptomic data. Tumor types include ependymoma, craniopharyngioma, atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor, pediatric high-grade glioma, rare meningiomas, embryonal tumors, and other molecularly defined tumors. A central goal is to assess whether drugs developed for more common cancers may be repurposed for rare brain tumors based on quantitative measurements of therapeutic-target expression. The successful candidate will be based in Dr. Sandro Santagata’s laboratory at BWH and collaborate with investigators at Harvard Medical School’s Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and other laboratories. The position offers hands-on experience in high-dimensional tissue imaging, antibody qualification, assay development, image analysis, and integration of molecular and morphologic data from human tumors.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in biology, biochemistry, biological chemistry, chemical biology, biomedical engineering, biophysics, computational biology, bioinformatics, or a related biomedical or quantitative field.
Demonstrated interest in biomedical research, cancer biology, molecular measurement, tissue imaging, or quantitative analysis of biological data.
Ability to perform reproducible experiments and maintain well-organized experimental records.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, including the ability to work with complex sample sets and contribute to well-annotated research datasets.
Ability to learn and troubleshoot technically sophisticated experimental workflows.
Strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary research environment.
Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for connecting experimental observations with questions in cancer biology and therapeutic development.

Nice To Haves

Prior laboratory research experience, particularly involving microscopy, immunofluorescence, molecular or biochemical assays, or quantitative data analysis.
Experience with or strong interest in immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, microscopy, protein biochemistry, molecular biology, or related experimental methods.
Understanding of basic protein biochemistry and molecular interactions, including antibody–antigen binding.
Interest in quantitative analysis of biological data and willingness to learn image-analysis and computational tools.
Familiarity with ImageJ/Fiji, Python, R, MATLAB, or related quantitative tools.
Willingness to commit to approximately two years in the position and grow within a collaborative, multidisciplinary research environment.

Responsibilities

Develop a spatial molecular atlas of therapeutic targets in rare pediatric and adult brain tumors by generating, organizing, and quantitatively analyzing multiplexed tissue-imaging data across tumor types, cases, and histologic regions.
Perform multiplexed tissue-imaging experiments using CyCIF, ORION, immunofluorescence, and related methods to characterize cell-surface therapeutic targets.
Develop and qualify antibodies against established and emerging ADC targets; compare antibody clones and optimize staining conditions for specificity, cellular localization, signal-to-background ratio, dynamic range, and reproducibility.
Design and optimize multiplex antibody panels combining therapeutic targets with tumor-lineage, proliferation, immune, vascular, and cell-state markers.
Prepare and analyze human FFPE tissue specimens, tissue microarrays, and patient-derived tumor models, using tissue-sparing approaches for scarce clinical samples.
Analyze whole-slide multiplexed images, including quality control, single-cell segmentation and quantification, assessment of target-expression heterogeneity, and visualization of spatial patterns.
Integrate protein-imaging results with molecular datasets, including spatial transcriptomic data, to identify and prioritize candidate therapeutic targets.
Assist with comparisons of patient tumors, patient-derived cell lines, and xenograft models to identify models that preserve clinically relevant target expression.
Support standardized ORION multiplexed imaging assay development to measure multiple therapeutic targets from a single tissue section and facilitate potential clinical-trial and diagnostic applications.
Maintain detailed experimental records and organized datasets, including antibody-validation results, imaging experiments, sample metadata, and quality-control information.
Troubleshoot and optimize experimental protocols and contribute ideas to improve assay performance, reproducibility, throughput, and tissue utilization.
Prepare figures and datasets and contribute to scientific presentations, manuscripts, and collaborative project reports.
Present work at laboratory and multidisciplinary project meetings and participate in discussions of results and next steps.
Support routine laboratory activities, including reagent preparation, ordering, equipment maintenance, sample organization, and laboratory safety procedures.
Collaborate with scientists, physicians, computational researchers, and research staff across BWH, HMS, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and collaborating institutions.