Research Assistant

We’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings 40+ years ago. And for four decades, our vision has been the same — to save the lives of all children with cancer and improve their long-term health through research. We’ve made enormous strides, but there’s more to do.

To accomplish our vision, we need the best of everything... the best people, the best facilities and the best culture for our people to work in.

We are currently looking for a Research Assistant to help reduce burden of cancer in Australian Children. Working closely with the ZERO childhood cancer program, we seek an individual that can help drive innovation and discovery in three key areas. These are predisposition screening, minimally invasive monitoring and immune oncology.

The Research Assistant will work with various aspects of the ZERO childhood Cancer program including, the ACRF Child Cancer Liquid biopsy Program and the ACRF Spatial Immune Research Program, the ACRF ACCEPT program. You will be joining a diverse team of scientists, engineers, molecular biologists and clinicians all with the common goal of improving health outcomes for children with cancer. We create innovative tools and software that utilise multi-omics sequencing approaches to facilitate precision medicine, underpinning the ZERO childhood cancer precision medicine program.

To succeed you will have…

• A BSc with Honors (or equivalent demonstratable work experience in a reputable lab)
• Expertise or experience in some aspect of the following:

• Biobanking and sample handling (blood fractionation, Ficolling, cryopreservation)

• DNA and RNA extractions (including cfDNA)

• NGS library Prep (bulk RNASeq, low input liquid biopsy libraries and single-cell multiomics)

• Capture panels (TWIST chemistry)

• Flow cytometry and FACS (experience with high dimensional spectral flow cytometry and cell sorting an advantage)

• Spatial multiomics (Xenium and MACSima)

• Microfluidics (particularly around CTC culture and primary culture)

• Cell and tissue culture (experience with IPCS, primary tissue culture (ALTEN) and CTC culture viewed highly)

• Ability to independently manage competing goals.
• Highly motivated to produce high quality outcomes in pursuit of translational and clinical excellence
• Highly skilled in communications and must be capable of always maintaining a professional demeanour.
• Must be sufficiently skilled to work in an independent manner with minimum oversight.
• Exceptional time management skills

We will support you to be your best with benefits that include but are not limited to:

• Focus on employee wellbeing, including up to 5 gifted wellbeing days off (paid) per year
• Access to fitness passport, with access to an extensive choice of fitness facilities across Sydney at discounted rates
• Corporate discounts and discounts on education through UNSW
• Not for profit salary packaging / tax benefits

Additional information about Children's Cancer Institute can be found on our website at: https://www.ccia.org.au/careers-study .

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Children’s Cancer Institute and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.