The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time Laboratory Support Technician position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

The Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE) supports ORD by providing solutions-driven research to rapidly evaluate the potential human health and environmental risks due to exposures to environmental stressors and ensure the integrity of the freshwater environment and its capacity to support human well-being. CCTE researchers are developing and applying cutting edge innovations in methods to rapidly evaluate chemical toxicity, transport, and exposure to people and environments. Within CCTE, the Biomolecular and Computational Toxicology Division (BCTD) performs research to develop and advance laboratory experimental and computational approaches to rapidly evaluate and characterize the potential human toxicity of chemicals.

The ToxCast and Tox21 projects are testing thousands of chemicals in a wide range of state-of-the-art high-throughput biological assays, with the goal of building computational models for predicting toxicity. Supporting this effort are various new laboratory research services, and databases tracking massive amounts of information related to bioassay outputs, chemical structures and identifiers, and detailed tracking of the chemical samples undergoing testing and a suite of web applications make these data available to the public.

As a team member, you will assist CCTE laboratory scientific researchers with laboratory experiments, maintenance and management of laboratory equipment, sample inventory and management, data analysis, as well as some administrative support functions.

How you will apply your skills

Analytical and laboratory responsibilities will include:

Maintaining sample inventories and logs;
• Strict adherence to safety rules and procedures for conducting laboratory research;
• Maintaining, managing and organizing laboratory facilities, supplies and reagents;
• Preparing reagents and solutions;
• Clearly document all activities and experiments using a standard laboratory notebook;
• Maintaining inventories of laboratory reagents;
• Sterilizing and cleaning glassware and cleaning laboratory facilities;
• Conducting literature reviews, obtaining and reviewing publications, and summarizing the literature;
• Following protocols and plate designs to conduct high-throughput screening assays;
• Preparation of all solutions, reagents, test compound stock solutions and other drugs that are needed for experiments. This will typically include buffer solutions and stock solutions of test compound;
• Preparation and/or maintenance of the cell cultures to be used in experiments. This may include passaging and expansion of clonal cells lines or preparation of primary cultures from animal or human tissue;
• Preparation of subcellular fractions, homogenates, tissue lysates and DNA or RNA extracts from cells or tissues;
• Molecular analysis of cell and tissue samples including Western blotting, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA sequencing, and immunocytochemistry;
• Recombinant DNA cloning, cellular transfection and/or transduction, and cellular microscopy;
• Conducting the experiments will include setting up the equipment, administering the test compounds, collecting the data and recording all important experimental details in a laboratory notebook according to standard QA practices;
• Assisting in assay development and optimization by troubleshooting results and suggesting solutions;
• Preliminary analysis of the results of their experiments. This includes reporting out the results of individual experiments as well as providing descriptive statistical analyses (i.e., mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, median, etc) for experimental data; and
• Where appropriate, maintain all records and documentation associated with the conduct of these experiments, in accordance with CCTE Quality Assurance.

Communications-related responsibilities will include:

• Participate as a member of a multi-disciplinary research team;
• Filing and organizing records;
• Assisting in summary analysis documents of results and impacts from data analyses;
• Assisting in writing study results in manuscripts, presentations, and fact sheets; and
• May be asked to present work performed as a poster at a scientific conference.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Familiarity with general laboratory safety and maintenance;
• At least 16 semester hours of laboratory procedures such as single and multi-chemical pipetting, preparing dilutions, using plate washers, centrifuging, sterilization and sanitation, preparing reagents;
• Prior experience working with environmental, biological, and/or human samples including: sample organization, labeling, receiving, inventory, and processing; and
• A working knowledge of good cell culture practices as well as basic molecular biology techniques such as DNA/RNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), recombinant cloning, transfection, protein lysate preparation, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and Western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry.

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Prior work experience in a working laboratory environment outside of classroom environment;
• Experience using Microsoft Excel to summarize and manipulate data files, manage data, create graphics, and conduct basic data analysis. Familiarity with R packages for data analysis; and
• Experience with microscopy techniques, flow cytometry and small-scale laboratory automation.

Location: This job will be located EPA's facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $23.37 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin May 2024. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA.

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a bachelor's degree in biology, molecular biology, cell biology, chemistry, toxicology, genetics, biomedical engineering, environmental sciences, or related field from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.