Supervisor, Lab Operations

GENERAL SUMMARY OF POSITION:

Under the direction of the Department Administrator or designee, the Lab Operations Supervisor is responsible for the effective functioning of all department facilities and equipment, compliance with all safety regulations, and providing operational support to the medical student teaching laboratories.      

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ensure that department equipment and physical plant are fully functioning and maintained, provide maintenance services as appropriate, and contact internal or external vendors as needed to resolve problems
• Determine the most economical and effective preventive maintenance options and schedules.  Stock repair parts.
• Oversee resolution of problems and communicate results
• Procure department equipment, contact vendors, review quotes and final bids, negotiate contracts, and provide summaries of relevant information   
• Work with Facilities Engineering, Environmental Health and Safety and Radiation Safety Office to ensure department facilities are in compliance with federal and state regulations.  Anticipate potential safety problems and resolve them.  Conduct informal or formal department training sessions as needed 
• Coordinate student lab courses in conjunction with the faculty lab coordinator – timely purchasing, storage, and set-up of materials and equipment, safety assessment of biological manipulations, ensure lab facilities are functional, disposal of biological waste, and take-down of lab exercise to prepare space for the next course   
• Responsible for physical inventory of all equipment and maintain records of all equipment moved off-site, acquired, or disposed of.  Respond to update requests from the UMMS Asset Management office
• Ensure department AV equipment is functional, provide on-site support if requested
• Advise Administrator and Faculty on proposed renovation projects
• Maintain department library  
• Perform other duties as required. 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in the Biological Sciences, or equivalent experience
• 3-5 years of relevant experience
• Basic knowledge and understanding of electrical, mechanical, carpentry, and plumbing skills.  Experience in a biomedical research laboratory with basic laboratory techniques.  Familiarity with PC’s, preferably Macintosh, and Microsoft Office

SUPERVISION RECEIVED:

Under the direction of the Department Administrator or designee

SUPERVISION EXERCISED:

None

ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING CONDITIONS:

Usual scientific laboratory conditions, work in a wet chemistry laboratory, may require appropriate contact with biohazards, radionuclides, toxins, animals, and human specimens

The Chan lab's research primarily revolves around the use of high-throughput in-vitro modeling of human cell lines for studying human genetic diseases, especially complex diseases. Our goal is to be able to perform multiple in-vitro phenotypic assays on a population of different donor cells to determine if the in-vitro penotype corresponds to the human phenotype. Our current phenotypes include HSV-1 infectivity for predicting Alzheimer's disease as well as Cisplatin induced cell death in otic progenitor cells for predicting Hearing Loss from Cisplatin.