Research Lab Tech II

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, located at USC Keck School of
Medicine, is seeking a full-time Research Laboratory Technician II to join our research team of
highly skilled senior research associates, technicians, and faculty researchers. Under the
direction of Principal Investigators, our research studies focus on peptidic effectors of
mammalian innate immunity for drug development.

The laboratory employs an array of general scientific laboratory research practices and
procedures, including molecular biology, protein biochemistry, enzyme kinetics, immune
signaling pathways, microbiology, and animal models for acute and chronic inflammatory
diseases. Under direct supervision, he/she will be performingin vitro(cell culture) andin vivo
(rodent) experiments to evaluate physiologic and molecular effects and mechanisms of peptidic
agents. He/she will be testing a library of synthetic peptides for their immunomodulatory
properties in infection and inflammatory disease models.

The Research Lab Technician II will administer peptide treatment while collecting data for
clinical/in-life presentation of disease (i.e., survivability, weight gain/loss, disease severity,
mortality, and/or morbidity), post-mortem indicators of disease (i.e., bacterial or fungal
burden). He/she will be responsible for obtaining, maintaining, and graphing of data. The
technician will inoculate rodents with pathogens by intraperitoneal or intravenous injections, and
he/she will give drug treatment or placebos to infected animals, harvest organs for
histochemical analysis, collect blood for pharmacokinetics, and enumerate bacterial/fungal load
as a function of peptide treatment. In our inflammatory disease models, maintaining a rodent
colony, measuring weights, and recording visual observations may be employed. Additional
pharmacokinetics will be analyzed utilizing uninfected rabbits as a secondary model. The
candidate is required to complete animal tutorial training and receive certification in general
laboratory safety before any work is performed in the laboratory.

The University offers a competitive salary and benefit package

This is a grant-funded position
Flexible hours will be required.

Hourly range:

The hourly rate range for this position is $25.71 - $31.30. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.