Research Assistant II

Title

Research Assistant II- (Wang Lab)

MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is to eliminate cancer in Texas, the nation, and the world through outstanding programs that integrate patient care, research and prevention, and through education for undergraduate and graduate students, trainees, professionals, employees and the public.

SUMMARY

The Research Assistant II applies technical expertise and experience to coordinate, design and carry out research projects.

CORE VALUES

Caring Behaviors

• Courtesy: Is respectful and courteous to each other at all times.
• Friendliness/Teamwork: Promotes and rewards teamwork and inclusiveness; is sensitive to the concerns of our patients and our co-workers.

Integrity Behaviors

• Reliability: Communicates frequently, honestly and openly.
• Accountability: Holds self and others accountable for practicing our values.
• Safety: Models safe behavior (wears badge and personal protective equipment, washes hands, and keeps work area clean and orderly); Notices a safety concern or emergency, understands role and uses proper procedures to report it; Mitigates risk to the institution through sound business practices; Demonstrates ethical and personal responsibility in work and behavior

Discovery Behaviors

• Responsiveness: By his/her actions, creates an environment of trust; Encourages learning, creativity and new ideas.
• Personal Leadership/Self-Initiative: Helps others to identify and solve problems; Seeks personal growth and enables others to do so.

JOB SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES

Essential Job Functions:

• Assists principal investigator with scientific research projects.
• Functions in a separate and independent manner in the design and initiation of research experiments.
• Designs, develops or adapts equipment used in experiments or research to obtain desired results.
• Determines specific goals or objectives to be obtained, evaluates research data and develops and revises techniques or approaches to work problems.
• Plans training and research work activity for assigned laboratory and research personnel.
• Supervises the use of laboratory equipment and implements safety procedures.
• Compiles, writes and submits project results to mentor.

Animal Work:

• Will maintain mouse colonies including breeding and genotyping. Perform minor surgeries and maintain patient-derived xenograft animal models
• Lead in vivo experiments through planning and performing the appropriate treatments, health monitoring, data collection and organization.
• Process and evaluate samples collected from mice.

In Vitro:

• Maintain human cell line in vitro cultures.
• Perform in vitro culture work with sterile techniques.
• Generate cell lines from human and mouse tissues.
• Analyze cells through the utilization of western blotting and flow cytometry.

Other duties as assigned

COMPETENCIES

Analytical Thinking - Gather relevant information systematically; break down problems into simple components; make sound decisions.

Coach and Develop - Assess strengths and development needs of employees; provide challenging development opportunities; provide relevant, timely feedback; mentor others.

Innovative Thinking - Approach problems with curiosity and open-mindedness; offer new ideas, solutions and/or options.

Inspire Trust - Show consistency among principles, values, and behavior; gain the confidence and trust of others.

Listen to Others - Listen to feedback and input carefully; demonstrate attention to others; acknowledge and listen to differing perspectives in a group.

Provide Direction - Provide clear direction and priorities toward a common vision; clarify roles and responsibilities for employees; promote empowerment.

Equipment Usage and Safety Preparedness - Employee maintains expectations for safety preparedness, including but not limited to: Orientation to new equipment, Employee Education Event, CPR training, fire drills.

Professionalism - Employee demonstrates commitment to collaborative professional relationships with physicians and all members of the heath care team.

Team with Others - Initiate, develop, and manage relationships and networks; encourage collaboration and input from all team members; value the contributions of all team members; balance individual and team goals.

Written Communication - Convey information clearly and concisely through both formal and informal documents; adapt writing style to fit the audience.

Service Orientation
Provide service to our stakeholders, including patients, caregivers, colleagues and each other, in a safe, courteous, accountable, efficient and innovative manner to include:

• Promoting inclusiveness and collegiality that demonstrates respect and professionalism to our stakeholders at all times
• Modeling safe, ethical behavior that mitigates risk to the institution through sound business practices, and adherence to MD Anderson's Standards of Conduct, institutional policies and procedures
• Responding to requests in a timely manner while proactively communicating expectations for procedures, service arrival, or project deliverables to stakeholders
• Using the steps to HEAL (Hear, Empathize, Address and Learn) the relationship when service recovery is needed

Customer Focus
Builds and maintains customer satisfaction with the products and services offered by the organization through skills demonstrated in communication, personalization of interaction, regulation of emotions, and proactive problem solving.

Performance Statement Examples

• Presents a cheerful, positive manner with customers either on the phone or in person. Shows interest in, actively listens to and responds in a clear and timely manner to customer's expressed needs.
• Focuses on the customer's results, rather than own. Goes beyond basic service expectations to help customers implement complete solutions through personalized service that anticipates the customer's unspoken needs.
• Delivers services when and where the customer needs them. Explores options when unable to deliver a requested product or service, and pursues solutions until the customer is satisfied by addressing the root cause of the issue. Problem solves with patient, family member, care giver or clinical team to aid in proactively resolving issues and concerns.
• Provides to customers status reports and progress updates. Seeks customer feedback and ensures needs have been fully met.
• Talks to customers (internal and external) with a pleasant tone to find out what they need and how satisfied they are with the service. Remains in control of own reactions and responds in a manner that demonstrates appropriate nonverbal cues and complements the customer's emotions in the situation. Recognizes when its is necessary to escalate situations to leadership to ensure customer satisfaction.

Bachelor's degree with major course works in one of the basic sciences. Two years experience in scientific or experimental research work. No experience required with preferred degree. It is the policy of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by institutional policy or by federal, state or local laws unless such distinction is required by law. http://www.mdanderson.org/about-us/legal-and-policy/legal-statements/eeo-affirmative-action.html