iPSC & NMJ Research Assistant – Flexible Schedules

Boston Children's Hospital; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 48,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible schedules

Health insurance

Vision and dental insurance

Student loan subsidies

Retirement plan

Job summary

Boston Children’s Hospital is seeking a Laboratory Research Assistant I to support cutting-edge neuromuscular disease research in Dr. Engle’s lab at Harvard Medical School. The role involves iPSC culture, differentiation to spinal cord organoids and skeletal muscle progenitors, and NMJ culture maintenance with drug screening experiments.

The successful candidate will work under Dr. Kuchuan Chen, with occasional evenings/weekends for cell culture.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM or Psychology is required.
• Preference for Biology, Neuroscience, Molecular Biology, or related field.
• Experience with human iPSC culture or differentiation is preferred.
• Hands-on sterile cell culture techniques and wet bench skills.

Responsibilities

• Culture and maintain human iPSCs with quality control.
• Differentiate iPSCs into organoids and progenitors.
• Establish NMJ cultures and assembloids for screens.
• Perform NMJ drug screens and validate hits.
• Conduct microscopy and live-cell imaging (fluorescence/confocal).
• RNA purification, cDNA prep, and qPCR analyses.
• Dissociate cells, perform FACS, and prepare samples for single-cell profiling.
• Assist with mouse work including genotyping and tissue collection.
• Prepare media/reagents and maintain lab equipment.
• Record experiments meticulously in lab notebooks and databases.

Skills

iPSC culture

neural differentiation

organoid culture

microscopy

live-cell imaging

RNA purification

qPCR

FACS/flow cytometry

Education

Bachelor's degree in STEM or Psychology

Biology/Neuroscience/Molecular Biology/Bioengineering focus preferred

Tools

Immunostaining

Cryosectioning

Confocal microscopy

Job description

Boston Children’s Hospital is seeking a Laboratory Research Assistant I to support cutting-edge neuromuscular disease research in Dr. Engle’s lab at Harvard Medical School. The role involves iPSC culture, differentiation to spinal cord organoids and skeletal muscle progenitors, and NMJ culture maintenance with drug screening experiments.

The successful candidate will work under Dr. Kuchuan Chen, with occasional evenings/weekends for cell culture.