Part Time Research Assistant

The Hourigan Lab focuses on bringing precision medicine approaches to the care of patients suffering from the rare, highly fatal, blood cancer Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Based at the Virginia Tech Cancer Research Center in Washington DC, and a member of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, the laboratory performs translational research developing high sensitivity genomic tools for the characterization of measurable residual disease (MRD) in patients with AML to predict and prevent relapse. This work includes multiple governmental and private sector partnerships and leadership of the national prospective clinical protocol (‘MEASURE”) to validate and implement AML MRD testing nationwide.

The lab is looking for a part-time Research Assistant to assist with current and ongoing research projects. This is a great opportunity to get a hands-on learning experience in a professional research laboratory. Typically, a Research Assistant supports a scientist in the performance of various recruitment, technical, and data collection activities for research or laboratory programs. These roles will serve as part of the research team working collaboratively and independently to collect and organize data for grant-funded research projects. Laboratory and research support responsibilities range from entry- to advanced-level.

The duties of the roles will include, though may not be limited to the following:

• Making significant contributions to the projects assigned and the achievement of the project’s research goals.
• Collecting and entering data by approved protocols – training provided.
• Research record keeping with an emphasis on confidentiality.
• Maintenance of office and laboratory supplies inventory.
• Maintaining accurate and confidential records
• Conducting literature searches to gather background information for use by the Principal Investigator (PI) and other research team members in developing and evaluating research protocols and grant applications.
• Participating in research team meetings to report on research progress, improve data collection processes, assist with problem solving, and address protocol issues that arise during the course of research studies.