Human Islet Isolation Associate - Pancreas Donors

Join the forefront of groundbreaking research at the  Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, where we're changing lives and making a real difference in the fight against cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Our dedicated and compassionate faculty and staff are driven by a common mission: Contribute to innovative approaches in predicting, preventing, and curing diseases, shaping the future of medicine through cutting-edge research.

A Human Islet Isolation Associate role is available in the lab of Dr. Fouad Kandeel.  He is principal investigator on the islet transplantation trial to determine the safety and efficacy of islet cell transplantation as a treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes. In addition, Dr. Kandeel has recently concluded a clinical project to identify genes related to the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the Hispanic population. He also continues to oversee the Diabetes and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program, which he established several years ago at City of Hope. Due to his strong background in endocrine tumors and thyroid cancer, Dr. Kandeel participates in the development of the national guidelines for the management of neuroendocrine tumors and thyroid cancer.

Please note this role is arranged on a rotating schedule, including 24/7 on call times which include holidays and weekends. You must respond to emergency calls at all times.

As a successful candidate, you will:

·         Be responsible for manufacturing and isolating human islets from pancreas donors under limited supervision for transplant and research purposes.

·         Conduct islet manufacturing (both transplant and research) and related research development under cGMP guidelines. These tasks include but are not limited to: real-time documentation, islet culture, islet sampling, islet assessment, tissue harvest and achieve, assist in developing SOPs, and attend meeting and conference for continuous education.

·         Set up the equipment/devices in cGMP facility and prepare media prior to pancreas arrival. Responsible for performing routine inventory and re-stocking.  Other additional tasks include organization of the cGMP facility, reagent preparation and aliquoting, and, preparing and autoclaving tubing sets per SOP.  

·         Participate in the efforts to achieve compliance with all Federal (FDA) and State accrediting agency requirements in the manufacturing and testing of isolated human islets in the Cellular Therapeutic Production Center. 

·         Provide qualification and validation support for manufacturing processes and quality assurance procedures that are essential to the cGMP production of biomedical products. 

·         Cooperate with Quality Assurance group (QA) and Quality Systems to ensure the quality of product and cGMP compliance.