Lab Technician or Specialist, Jash Lab - Pathology

The Department of Pathology in UVA’s School of Medicine is seeking a Lab Technician or Specialist to join their team! The Jash Lab studies immune responses to red blood cells (RBCs) that have significant clinical consequences in three major contexts:

1.      Transfusion Alloimmunization: When a transfusion recipient generates antibodies against donor RBCs.

2.      RBC Autoimmunity: When a patient mounts an immune response against their own RBCs.

3.      Maternal Alloimmunization: When a pregnant mother mounts an immune response to foreign fetal RBC antigens entering her circulation.

These events complicate clinical challenges by making it difficult and at times impossible to find compatible blood for transfusion thus denying patients access to lifesaving blood transfusions and leading to significant morbidity and mortality.

Core Duties & Technical Responsibilities:

- Transgenic Mouse Colony Management & Genotyping (40%): Oversee animal husbandry, breeding setups, weaning schedules, and lineage tracking for complex transgenic and Cre-lox mouse lines. Extract genomic DNA and execute high-throughput PCR and gel electrophoresis for genotyping. Ability to identify and separate mice by gender, strong grasp of Mendelian genetics and inheritance patterns are a must.

- In Vivo Procedures & Murine Transfusions (25%): Perform specialized animal handling including tail vein, intra-peritoneal, intra-muscular and sub-cutaneous injections and blood collection by cardiac puncture (terminal procedure) and via retro-orbital route (non-terminal procedure), tail snip for genotyping and ear marking for mice identification. Maintain compliance with ACUC standards and animal welfare protocols.

- Tissue Processing, Immune Cell Isolation and Primary Cell Culture (10%): Process and prepare blood prior to transfusion, harvest and process primary lymphoid and non-lymphoid organs (spleen, bone marrow, and liver) to prepare single-cell suspensions for downstream immunological profiling. Perform aseptic cell culture techniques- cell plating, maintenance and in vitro functional co-culture assays.

- Flow Cytometry & Analysis (10%): Stain cell preparations with multi-color fluorescent antibody panels targeting immune cell subsets; assist with operating flow cytometers and organizing raw dataset files for analysis.

- Laboratory Operations & Compliance (10%): Perform general lab housekeeping, maintain biosafety compliance, prepare core laboratory buffers/reagents (preparation of working solutions of reagents from respective stocks via dilution or reconstitution), track supply inventory, and maintain accurate experimental records.

- Collaborative Support (5%): Collaborate frequently with supervisors, postdocs, faculty, and students to coordinate study timelines, communicate experimental results, and streamline animal cohort availability.

Minimum Requirements:

- Lab Technician: Associate's degree required; may accept equivalent combination of experience, education, certification in lieu of degree.  2+ years of lab experience which may include student experience.

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- Lab Specialist: Bachelor’s degree required. 1 year of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Hands-on experience with rodent handling, transgenic breeding, PCR genotyping, aseptic cell culture, or flow cytometry strongly preferred.

- Basic background in Immunology is strongly preferred.

- The ideal candidate will be self-motivated and highly organized, with the ability to work independently after the training period.

Anticipated Compensation: $19.23 - $24.04/hour ($40,000 to $50,000 annually), commensurate with level, education and experience.

Physical Demands : This position can spend extensive periods of time standing while conducting experiments or caring for animals. Also requires keyboarding and other bench work and animal procedures requiring finer finger manipulation.

Additional Details:

- This position will not sponsor applicants already in the US for work visas.

- This is a restricted position; continuation is dependent on funding and satisfactory performance.

- This position is located in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is a full-time benefited position.  For more information on the benefits at UVA, visit www.hr.virginia.edu/benefits (http://www.hr.virginia.edu/benefits).

- The University will perform background checks on all new hires prior to employment. A completed health screen is required for this position within 30 days.

Application Process:

Please apply online , and search for R0089187 . Internal applicants may search and apply for jobs on the UVA Internal Careers website . Complete an application online with the following documents:

- CV/Resume
- Cover Letter

Upload all materials into the resume submission field, multiple documents can be submitted into this one field. Alternatively, merge all documents into one PDF for submission. Applications that do not contain all the required documents will not receive full consideration.

References will be completed via UVA’s standardized process SkillSurvey. A total of five references will be requested via SkillSurvey during the final phase of the interview process. A minimum of three are required.

For information regarding the position or the application process, please contact Jessica Speth, Academic Recruiter, [email protected].

The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity employer. All interested persons are encouraged to apply, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Learn more about UVA’s commitment to non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment .