Lab Manager Biological Sciences (Behringer Lab)

Job Description

Position Summary:

The Lab Manager is part of the Behringer Lab in Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University and is an essential member of the research team responsible for supporting the research organization and day to day operations of the lab. This includes maintaining daily lab operations including ordering supplies reconciling expenses maintaining equipment and coordinating repair ensuring lab safety establishing lab protocols oversee long-term co-culture and assessment of experimental evolution cultures mentoring graduate and undergraduate students and organizing lab meetings and addition the Lab Manager conducts directed research generates data and helps write manuscripts. To this end experience in CRISPR cell culture nucleic acid extraction for NGS sequencing and project organization are required.

The Lab Manager will report directly to Dr. Megan Behringer (Principal Investigator) and regularly work with the other members of the Behringer Lab to ensure the long-term co-culture and assessment of experimental bacterial populations under various biotic and abiotic stressors is continuously maintained.

We are ayoung and vibrant team dedicated to understanding fundamental biological processes in a collaborative environment. The major research focus of this position is understanding how stress influences population dynamics within a model 2-strain community which aligns with the global lab interests of how microbes evolve in stressful environments.

About the Work Unit:

The Department of Biological Sciences has an excellent staff to facilitate issue resolution involving personnel financial management supply and equipment orders proposal submission and infrastructure. The faculty in the department carry out diverse research projects and often collaborate with other members within the department and in nearby departments. This department covers a broad spectrum of biology from molecules and cells to tissues and organisms to populations and ecosystems. Award-winning faculty and graduate students teach and carry out research in Biochemistry Structural Biology and Biophysics Cell Biology Genetics Molecular Biology Computational Biology Evolutionary Biology Ecology Developmental Biology and Neurobiology.

The Behringer lab is a steady state of 8-12 personnel including the Lab Manager a postdoctoral research associate 3-5 graduate students 1 research assistant and 3-4 undergraduates. We are a young and vibrant team dedicated to understanding fundamental biological processes in a collaborative environment. Our major approach is experimental evolution with a goal to understand evolutionary mechanisms underlying how bacterial genomes change under resource limited or structured conditions. Results stemming from our research is broadly applicable to health agriculture defense industrial microbiology as well as basic addition to experimental evolution the lab takes a systems microbiology approach applying cutting edge techniques in multi-omics genetic reconstruction and high-throughput phenotyping. Dr. Behringer is an emerging leader in her field with several notable awards including a YIP award from the Army Research Office a R35 ESI-MIRA award from the National Institutes of Health and seed funding from Hypothesis Fund. The lab routinely publishes high-impact papers in top general and society journals with lab alumni being very successful continuing on to top graduate programs medical careers and careers in biomedical industry.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Perform directed research
• Manage the long-term culture of experimental populations including maintaining inventory of key media and reagents; coordinating daily transfers periodic screening for contamination and collections at key timepoints; and ensuring the glassware and spent cultures are appropriately sterilized. This is the major mission of the lab and underlies the majority of our investigation into how microbes adapt to stress.
• Perform nucleic acid extraction from long-term experimental cultures and prepare sample for submission to the genomic sequencing core facility.
• Help optimize new culture strategies to expand investigation to additional stressors.
• Assist with reconstructing key mutations that underlie bacterial adaptation under feast/famine.
• Mentor and assist with onboarding of new lab members including ensuring that any necessary training is complete.
• Assist with lab organization such as ordering and receiving reagents keeping chemical inventories and safety protocols current and organizing lab meetings and events. The applicant will be expected to be highly organized and detail oriented to help manage the day-to-day operation of the lab.
• Work with PI to hire new research assistants. Includes posting job descriptions and assisting with interviewing candidates

Mentor trainees

• Mentor and assist with onboarding of new lab members including ensuring that any necessary training is complete.

Lab organization

• Assist with lab organization such as ordering and receiving reagents keeping chemical inventories and safety protocols current and organizing lab meetings and events. The applicant will be expected to be highly organized and detail oriented to help manage the day-to-day operation of the lab.
• Work with PI to hire new research assistants. Includes posting job descriptions and assisting with interviewing candidates

Other duties as necessary

Qualifications

• A Bachelors Degree in fields of Biology Ecology/Evolutionary Biology Environmental Science Microbiology Molecular Biology or other related area.

• A minimum of 5 years of laboratory work experience is required.

• Prior experience in cell culture is necessary.

• Prior experience in conducting DNA extraction is necessary.

• Prior experience with CRIPSR editing is preferred.

• Prior experience with managing laboratory operations and mentoring is preferred.

• Ability to work with others in a mutually respectful environment that values honesty integrity and accountability is necessary.

Supervisory Relationships
This position doeshave supervisory responsibility. The Lab Manager will assist in supervising graduate students undergraduates and research assistants on complex laboratory procedures. This position reports administratively to the department administrative manager and functionally to the PI.