Research Engineer

We are looking for a Research Engineer to join the Center for Systems and Therapeutics. The candidate will be a critical member of a team of biologists and engineers to maintain and develop our cutting-edge automated microscopy platform. We are seeking someone who is passionate about engineering, imaging, deep learning and biology. This person will work closely with many other scientists towards common microscopy and engineering goals that are driven by the pursuit of unraveling neurological diseases.

About our group and the position:

We are an academic lab with over 20 BS-, MS-, and PhD-level neuroscientists and engineers that study neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. We use different cellular model systems, including human stem cells that are derived from patients, to answer basic questions in neuroscience as well as discover new therapies for these neurodegenerative diseases. At the core of our research is a novel longitudinal imaging system that we have invented to collect images and time-lapse movies of fluorescent labeled neurons in a high throughput format. We use our microscopy system to extract various types of information about how patient stem cell derived neurons grow, function, degenerate, and respond to candidate drugs. We also take advantage of the terabytes of data that we generate every day and use deep learning to invent new methods for analyzing our images. We have collaborations with many industry and academic groups, publish our work in high profile scientific journals, and present our work at national and international conferences. We continue to design and build novel automated microscopy systems and we need your help to do it.

Teamwork is essential for our success. You will work as part of a team to design, build, and maintain our robotic microscopes as well as help the biologists in the lab utilize these unique microscopes in their research. If you enjoy working with people, learning new exciting science, tinkering with optics and electronics, and want to creatively design and build things, this would be a great fit for you.

Education Required:

Minimum: B.S. in Physics, Optical or Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science or related field with 1-2 years of relevant research experience

Required Education/Skills:

• Experience with epifluorescence and/or spinning-disk confocal microscopy

• Critical thinking and attention to detail

• Knowledge of one or more of the following languages: Python, Java, C++, Matlab, R

• Highly organized with excellent communication skills

• Highly independent and self-motivated

• Able to work effectively in small groups

• Interest in biology, engineering, and getting involved with the customization of microscopes

• Able to communicate highly complex concepts to and work with those of different backgrounds
  

Education/Skills/Experience Preferred:

• Higher education in Physics, Engineering, or related field

• Conversant knowledge of imaging hardware (e.g., CMOS/sCMOS cameras, optical filters, objectives)

• Experience in maintaining microscope systems (e.g., cleaning, calibration, alignment)

• Experience in building microscope systems

• Experience with robotics or automation

• Experience with MicroManager or other microscope control software

• Experience with biological image analysis software, such as ImageJ

• Familiarity and interest in neurodegenerative diseases

• Presentation of original research to a large audience

• Poster presentation of original research at conferences

• Publications of original research in primary scientific literature

Hiring Range (DOE):

$66K - $77K

• Title and salary will be commensurate with education and experience.
• Gladstone is an equal opportunity employer.