Lab Manager - Philadelphia, United States - InsideHigherEd

Description

Lab Manager - Cremins Lab

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America's Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title
Lab Manager - Cremins Lab

Job Profile Title
Research Coordinator Senior

Job Description Summary
The Cremins lab works at the spatial biology-technology interface to understand chromatin-to-synapse communication during neural circuit activation in the mammalian brain. We aim to understand how chromatin works through long-range physical folding mechanisms to encode neuronal specification and long-term synaptic plasticity in healthy and diseased neural circuits. We pursue a multi-disciplinary approach integrating data across biological scales in the brain, including molecular Chromosome-Conformation-Capture sequencing technologies, single-cell imaging, optogenetics, genome engineering, induced pluripotent stem cell differentiation to neurons/organoids, and in vitro and in vivo electrophysiological measurements.

Our long-term scientific goal is to dissect the fundamental mechanisms by which chromatin architecture causally governs genome function and, ultimately, long-term synaptic plasticity and neural circuit features in healthy mammalian brains as well as during the onset and progression of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disease states.

Our long-term mentorship goal is to develop a diverse cohort of next-generation scientific thinkers and leaders cross-trained in molecular and computational approaches. We seek to create a positive, high-energy environment with open and honest communication to empower individuals to discover and refine their purpose and grow into the best versions of themselves.

The Lab Manager in the Cremins Lab will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the lab, including budgeting, purchasing, and annual maintenance of equipment and certification renewals. This role is ideal for you if you are detail-oriented and enjoy operations, logistics, and organizing systems and environments to empower and catalyze scientific discovery. This role is ideal for you if you enjoy the excitement of a bleeding-edge scientific laboratory and welcome the challenge of a fast-paced environment and fulfilling the important role of maintaining organized, well-functioning lab operations, a clean and safe laboratory, and a warm, positive, and inclusive lab climate.

Job Description

Job Responsibilities

Operational

• Become an expert in running each piece of equipment in the lab. Train new lab members on equipment, and run routine equipment training for the entire lab
• Lead the solicitation of quotes and negotiations with vendors for equipment replacement and repair. Write SOPs and protocols for equipment. Schedule and oversee preventative maintenance and calibration on all lab equipment (pipettes, microscopes, freezers.
• Supervise, maintain, and become actively involved in establishing and maintaining an orderly, annotated, clean, and organized laboratory. Organize the lab's online google drive and Dropbox directories with seamless and easily findable links in the lab manual.
• Serve as leader of lab safety efforts, including team-wide safety training, chemical paperwork and storage compliance, organizing cold and freezer storage, fume hood compliance, ensuring excellence in safety compliance, and preparation for annual safety checks as required by Penn Environmental Health & Radiation Services (EHRS).
• Oversee lab inventory management. Work directly with lab technician to track orders and ensure they are placed in clearly labeled locations and duplicate orders are not placed. Develop a lab inventory and tracking of common lab supplies. Keep all common lab reagents stocked and provide inventory of available items.
• Organize all of the lab's cold room, -20C, liquid N2, and -80C freezers, with matched online registries - and maintain/allocate lab member space within freezers. Organize all of the lab's plasmid, bacterial stock, and antibody registries.
• Allocate bench and desk space and create drafts of a strategic map as the lab grows
• Revise and monitor "All Hands On Deck" duty assignments (weekly lab duties assigned to each lab member, such as equipment cleaning, autoclaving tissue culture equipment, maintaining fume hood cleanliness, etc.) according to feedback from lab members and changes in lab members. Spearhead a 2x annual lab clean-up day involving all lab members.
• As the opportunity arises, write up yearly IACUC applications and facilitate animal husbandry paperwork.
• Generate ideas and systems to make the lab work more efficiently.

Administrative:

• Organize and send reminders for lab social events. Organize catering for lab meetings and lab celebrations.
• Send out weekly/daily reminders for lab meetings and seminars.
• Schedule and track One-on-One meetings with the PI, journal clubs, group meetings, and "All Hands On Deck" activities (weekly lab duties for each lab member) for the lab for every week across every semester, taking into account holidays and other days of importance.
• File expense reports for trainee and PI conferences.
• Coordinate meetings and associated room reservations for lab meetings, committee meetings, and departmental requirements for the PI and members of the lab.
• Update the shared lab Google calendar with important meetings, talks, and social events.

Interpersonal:

• Interview Cremins lab candidates and curate applications and initial screenings to find the top 5 candidates for interviews.
• Provide lab orientation/onboarding to new lab members and rotation students, including walking them through the lab manual and exemplifying in actions the principles and values detailed in the lab manual.

Scientific Writing:

• Edit, format, and facilitate stylistic and grammatical edits for lab's annual grant progress reports.
• Coordinate team members to arrange scientific content to meet grant progress report deadlines.
• Maintain the lab's NIH and NSF bibliographies, Cremins CV/Biosketch, Equipment, Facilities, Resource Sharing, and other critical documents for grant submissions and grant progress reports.
• Organize edit and catalyze the writeup and creation of lab protocols.
• Edit and provide feedback on postdoc and student proposal, grant submission, and manuscript drafts.
• Train on the lab's paper submission formatting guidelines and facilitate the editing process to arrange publication quality figures and text in early draft manuscripts.
• Assist PI in filling out of paperwork including, dbGAP and ENCODE data portal approvals; new hire applications; grant and university-related paperwork; and yearly RRPR reports for the lab's grants - including coordinating with the subTeam members to get the content assembled
• Many new writing opportunities for grants, papers, and scientific marketing materials are available if this is a passion and interest of the selected candidate.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree and 3 to 5 years of experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communications, interpersonal, and organizational skills. Organized individuals with a can-do attitude, a passion for building unity and community within a larger laboratory, a knack for independent problem-solving and getting things done, the ability to independently and positively navigate university systems, and attention to detail. Experience editing scientific documents and sufficient scientific knowledge to facilitate the creation of a database of lab-wide protocols. Preference for an MS or Ph.D. and prior experience with lab operations, establishing/maintaining exceptionally organized and safe laboratories, and facilitating a warm and connected community. Position is contingent upon continued funding.

Job Location - City, State
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School
School of Engineering and Applied Science

Pay Range
$43, $70,000.00 Annual Rate
Salary offers are made based on the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, as well as internal and market factors and grade profile.

Affirmative Action Statement
Penn adheres to a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected class.

Special Requirements
Background check required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.

University Benefits

• Health, Life, and Flexible Spending Accounts: Penn offers comprehensive medical, prescription, behavioral health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits to protect you and your family's health and welfare. You can also use flexible spending accounts to pay for eligible health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars.
  
• Tuition: Take advantage of Penn's exceptional tuition benefits. You, your spouse, and your dependent children can get tuition assistance here at Penn. Your dependent children are also eligible for tuition assistance at other institutions.
  
• Retirement: Penn offers generous retirement plans to help you save for your future. Penn's Basic, Matching, and Supplemental retirement plans allow you to save for retirement on a pre-tax or Roth basis. Choose from a wide variety of investment options through TIAA and Vanguard.
  
• Time Away from Work: Penn provides you with a substantial amount of time away from work during the course of the year. This allows you to relax, take vacations, attend to personal affairs, recover from illness or injury, spend time with family—whatever your personal needs may be.
  
• Long-Term Care Insurance: In partnership with Genworth Financial, Penn offers faculty and staff (and your eligible family members) long-term care insurance to help you cover some of the costs of long-term care services received at home, in the community or in a nursing facility. If you apply when you're newly hired, you won't have to provide proof of good health or be subject to underwriting requirements. Eligible family members must always provide proof of good health and are subject to underwriting.
  
• Wellness and Work-life Resources: Penn is committed to supporting our faculty and staff as they balance the competing demands of work and personal life. That's why we offer a wide variety of programs and resources to help you care for your health, your family, and your work-life balance.
  
• Professional and Personal Development: Penn provides an array of resources to help you advance yourself personally and professionally.
  
• University Resources: As a member of the Penn community, you have access to a wide range of University resources as well as cultural and recreational activities. Take advantage of the University's libraries and athletic facilities, or visit our arboretum and art galleries. There's always something going on at Penn, whether it's a new exhibit at the Penn Museum, the latest music or theater presentation at the Annenberg Center, or the Penn Relays at Franklin Field to name just a few examples. As a member of the Penn community, you're right in the middle of the excitement—and you and your family can enjoy many of these activities for free.
  
• Discounts and Special Services: From arts and entertainment to transportation and mortgages, you'll find great deals for University faculty and staff. Not only do Penn arts and cultural centers and museums offer free and discounted admission and memberships to faculty and staff. You can also enjoy substantial savings on other goods and services such as new cars from Ford and General Motors, cellular phone service plans, movie tickets, and admission to theme parks.
  
• Flexible Work Hours: Flexible work options offer creative approaches for completing work while promoting balance between work and personal commitments. These approaches involve use of non-traditional work hours, locations, and/or job structures.
  
• Penn Home Ownership Services: Penn offers a forgivable loan for eligible employees interested in buying a home or currently residing in West Philadelphia, which can be used for closing costs or home improvements.
  
• Adoption Assistance: Penn will reimburse eligible employees on qualified expenses in connection with the legal adoption of an eligible child, such as travel or court fees, for up to two adoptions in your household.
  

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