Research Technician: Organoids, Cell Culture, Cancer (Vienna, Austria)

We are recruiting a research technician who wants to contribute to cutting-edge biomedical research in a highly ambitious, collaborative, and international environment. Our lab is based at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, on the campus of one of the world’s largest hospitals.

At CeMM, we take career development of our staff seriously. For example, we will train the successful candidate in state-of-the-art technologies that are in high demand in academia, industry, and the medical sector. We encourage contribution to and co-authorship of scientific publications. Importantly, genomic medicine is a hot topic in Austria and internationally, creating a highly promising area for a career in biomedical research and applications.

Relevant Qualifications
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree (or equivalent) with strong wet-lab experience
• High accuracy, reliability, precision under time pressure, and organizational skills
• Very strong motivation and commitment, proactive mindset, getting-things-done attitude
• Prior experience working with molecular biology techniques including cell culture and DNA/RNA assays
• Friendly, collaborative mindset and ability to work well in an international environment
• Written and oral communication skills in English (German language skills are not required)
• Motivation to work in one of the fastest-moving and most future-oriented areas of biomedicine

Typical Tasks
• Cell culture and cell-based assays including the derivation and maintenance of patient-derived organoids
• High-throughput profiling of patient samples, including next generation sequencing, single-cell technologies, and CRISPR screens
• Optimization and testing of new assays and protocols, e.g. for cancer epigenetics, tumor immunology, and stem cell biology
• Contribution to lab management, training of new lab members, and scientific publications
• After the initial period we ask for a commitment of at least 3 years (candidates considering a PhD should apply to the CeMM PhD Program)

The Lab (http://epigenomics.cemm.oeaw.ac.at/; https://twitter.com/BockLab)
The Medical Epigenomics Lab at CeMM seeks to advance precision medicine through collaborative, technology-driven biomedical research, developing wet-lab and computational methods and investigating the epigenetic (de)regulation underlying cancer and immunity.
• High-throughput technology. Many groundbreaking discoveries are driven by new technologies. We invest heavily into technology development, including single-cell sequencing, CRISPR screens, epigenome editing, and synthetic biology.
• Computational biology. Bioinformatic methods will be essential for advancing precision medicine. We develop algorithms and software for biomedical data analysis, and we pursue clinical collaborations to demonstrate health impact.
• Single-cell biology. Many diseases show deregulation of epigenetic cell states. As a member of the Human Cell Atlas, we use single-cell sequencing and human organoids to dissect the gene-regulatory foundations of cancer & immunity.
• Machine learning. Huge datasets pose new analytical challenges. As a fellow of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems, we develop methods for interpretable deep learning and artificial intelligence in biology.
• Immune cell engineering. CAR T cells have shown dramatic efficacy for blood cancers and may spearhead a broad shift toward personalized, cell-based therapies. We use high-throughput technology to design synthetic immune cells.

The Principal Investigator (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9qSsTcIAAAAJ)
Christoph Bock is a principal investigator at CeMM. His research focuses on bioinformatics, epigenetics, cancer biology, and high-throughput technology development. He is also a guest professor at the Medical University of Vienna, scientific coordinator of the Biomedical Sequencing Facility at CeMM, and adjunct group leader for bioinformatics at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. He is a member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (since 2017) and recipient of several major research awards, including the Max Planck Society’s Otto Hahn Medal (2009), an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), and the Overton Prize of the International Society of Computational Biology (2017).

The Institute (http://www.cemm.at/)
CeMM is one of Europe’s leading biomedical research institutes. CeMM researchers routinely publish important discoveries in top journals. Over the last seven years, this included >10 papers in Nature/Cell/Science/NEJM and >30 papers in Nature/Cell sister journals – with a team of 120-150 scientists. Research at CeMM is exceptionally collaborative and has strong focus on medical impact, based on a profound molecular understanding of diseases such as cancer and immune disorders. CeMM is part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a founding member of EU-LIFE. It is located at the center of one of the largest medical campuses in Europe, within walking distance of Vienna’s historical city center. A study by “The Scientist” put CeMM among the top-5 best places to work in academia worldwide (https://www.the-scientist.com/features/best-places-to-work-academia-2012-40676). Vienna is frequently ranked the world’s best city to live. It is a United Nations city with a large English-speaking community. The official language at CeMM is English, and >45 different nationalities are represented at the institute. CeMM promotes equal opportunity and harbors a mix of different talents, backgrounds, competences, and interests. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package. Following the Austrian Science Fund’s salary scheme, a typical annual gross salary will be slightly above EUR 35,000.

Application details:  Please apply online (https://cemm.jobbase.io/job/7c1zzbg2) with cover letter, CV, academic transcripts, and contact details of three referees. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Any application received by 16 January 2020 will be considered. Start dates are flexible.