Systems biologist

PreCyte Inc. isa biotech startup that develops innovative diagnostic tests for neurodegenerative diseases and cancer in Seattle, WA. PreCyte and scientists from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute are collaborating to develop a novel blood-based diagnostic platform to identify disease signatures in patient’s blood. The platform is based on exposing standardized cultured cells to patient’s blood and measuring the transcriptional response of the cells to identify biomarkers of disease. PreCyte supports a healthy work-life balance and offers great benefits. www.precyte.net

Job Description

PreCyte is seeking a systems biologist to work with a small and highly collaborative team to develop and apply the company's targeted blood-based diagnostic technology for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and lung cancer. The primary role of the systems biologist will be to work with laboratory technicians and computational biologists to optimize the cell-based assay, gene expression analysis and disease classifiers. A key role of the systems biologist will be to gain biological insights from the assay data and patient clinical data.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

• effectively collaborate with laboratory technicians, computational biologists and team leaders to generate analyze and interpret large-scale gene expression data

• develop and implement approaches to automate and miniaturize cell-based assays and RNA extraction

• measure and improve assay robustness by band-guarding experimental parameters

• pay careful attention to details of experimental design and results to understand and control technical variation

• think critically to identify and overcome process failures

• use systems biology and network analysis tools to gain biological insights from large-scale gene expression data, and stratify patient samples based on clinical and assay data

• use time efficiently, adhere to careful documentation and organization practices, and be goal oriented

QUALIFICATIONS

• PhD in cell biology, molecular biology, systems biology or related field with 4-6+ years laboratory experience in an industrial or academic setting

• expertise with a variety of cell and molecular biology techniques, including mammalian cell culture, cloning, transfections, DNA and RNA isolation, PCR, protein isolation, western blotting, fluorescence microscopy

• experience with large-scale gene expression data generation using tools like RT-PCR, Fluidigm™, Nanostring™, RNA-seq and liquid handling robots (Gilson, Opentrons or other)

• experience with systems biology approaches including large-scale gene expression analysis and network analysis software (like IPA) to gain biological insights from large-scale datasets

• a track record of successful contribution to research projects, preferably with assay development or automation, or utilizing systems-level analyses of large-scale datasets

• ability to effectively interact and collaborate with lab and computational scientists

• excellent communication and interpersonal skills

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• experience with assay engineering, specifically cell-based assay development, automation and miniaturization

• expertise in Alzheimer’s disease or cancer research

Other Job Details: PreCyte is an equal opportunity employer to all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status. PreCyte also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.