Staff Scientist (High-content Imaging Specialist), Research Services Core, Division of Preclinical Innovation
Description
NCATS, a major research component of NIH, seeks applications from outstanding candidates to fill a staff scientist (high-content imaging specialist) position. The position is in the Research Services Core (RSC) of the center’s Division of Preclinical Innovation (DPI) in Rockville, Maryland.
DPI houses nearly 300 scientists — including medicinal chemists, biologists and informaticians — who conduct intramural research and collaborate with disease experts worldwide. They work to discover potential therapeutics and translate those into more treatments for all people more quickly. RSC is a fundamental research and infrastructure core. The core manages technical capabilities and services, chemical repositories and storage, and complex instrumentation necessary to enable high-throughput screening platforms, preclinical drug discovery and advanced translational science.
RSC is comprised of four groups: Automation, Sample Management, Automated Cell Technologies and Scientific Imaging Support. These four groups operate as a supportive unit to cover the current and future needs of DPI scientists in developing novel therapeutics for a variety of human disease areas.
Core Responsibilities
To support NCATS’ translational research efforts, the staff scientist (high-content imaging specialist) position will:
- Focus on high-content imaging execution and data analytics.
- Develop custom workflows and novel methods to handle translational research data.
- Deploy and maintain related tools, internally and publicly.
- Work with the RSC Director, RSC staff members across the various service areas, NCATS scientists (e.g., biologists, chemists, informaticians) and our academic collaborators.
- Contribute to the strategic vision and mentoring of trainees and staff.
- Pursue NCATS, NIH or external collaborations to further disseminate our data, methods and software.
- Help execute high-content imaging experiments and advise NCATS scientists on best practices in this area (e.g., high-throughput screens; knowledge sources on chemical, biological or disease specific areas).
- Work with data scientists in the scientific imaging support group to ensure data analysis is reproducible and scalable.
- Participate in the broader effort to standardize instrumentation and data pipelines used for collecting images and analyzing and promoting the integration of these related lines of information.
NCATS expects the selected candidate to:
- Create and maintain detailed documentation on all work products to facilitate reuse and collaboration with all DPI scientists.
- Contribute to and follow best practices in assay execution, including signal-to-background and industry-standard methodologies.
- Serve as an owner/point of contact for all high-content imaging instruments at NCATS and the associated data generated by NCATS scientists on these instruments.
- Train scientists and take an active role in the greater scientific community to ensure NCATS remains on the cutting edge of scientific advances.
- Have excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
- Possess excellent analytical, organizational and time management skills.
- Demonstrate the desire and drive to seek out and master novel technologies and develop new ones.
- Actively participate in RSC and NCATS committees and meetings and, as appropriate, showcase and collect feedback.
- Draft manuscripts and publish results in high-impact, peer-reviewed scientific journals and present results at internal and external scientific meetings.
Qualifications
The ideal candidate should have a doctoral degree (M.D., Ph.D. or equivalent) in cell biology, neuroscience or a relevant field and be a recognized expert in the field. Applicants must have a broad range of cell-based and scientific imaging experience that includes at least some of the following:
- Using microscopy instruments from various common vendors (e.g., Leica, Revvity and others)
- Employing techniques used across cell-based imaging assays (e.g., cell painting, organelle staining) and analyzing data generated using these techniques
- Working with common software used for scientific image analysis (e.g., ImageJ, Signals Image Artist and CellProfiler)
- Analyzing a broad range of scientific images across different cell types and exploiting these data for scientific advances in preclinical experiments
Applicants with knowledge of molecular biology or neuroscience and an understanding of data provenance (e.g., cell biology, methods for measuring cellular organelles through imaging, high-throughput screens) are highly preferred.
Salary/Benefits
Salary will be based on qualifications, experience and accomplishments. A full civil service benefits package is available. It includes retirement; health, life and long-term care insurance; and participation in a Thrift Savings Plan (401[k] equivalent).
How to Apply
Please submit a cover letter that includes a research summary (one to two pages) and describes your career goals and interest in the position, a current curriculum vitae with a complete bibliography, and contact information for at least three references to ncatsssrecruit@mail.nih.gov.
Application reviews will begin promptly and continue until the position is filled.
Additional Information
All information provided by candidates will remain confidential and will not be released outside NCATS’ search process without a signed release from candidates. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and NIH are Equal Opportunity Employers.
Employment is subject to the successful completion of the preappointment process (e.g., background investigation, verification of qualifications and job requirements, completion of onboarding forms, submission of required documents).