Research Assistant

The Snijder Lab is looking to hire a highly motivated and organized Research Assistant to join our team at the Botnar Institute of Immune Engineering (BIIE). The Research Assistant will support ongoing research projects and clinical studies through various tasks, including performing and analyzing experiments on primary human cells and maintenance of our wet lab. The position could be part-time (from at least 60%), up to a full-time (100%) position, and will be based in Basel, with regular interactions in the first year with our lab site in Zurich.

About the Snijder Lab

The Snijder Lab aims to improve health and understand human biology by developing and applying state of-the-art systems biology and immunology tools. Particularly, we develop and perform large-scale perturbation screens directly on human tissues for both precision medicine in immunology and oncology. This includes development of complex assays with primary human cells, high-throughput automated microscopy, computer vision and machine learning, and multi-omic and clinical data integration.

Perturbation screening and automated imaging of primary human cells allows us to characterize the ex vivo response of individual people to thousands of (potential) drug treatments or perturbations, over billions of cells, with spatial and subcellular resolution. This leads to unprecedented functional insights with direct applications in personalized medicine, particularly relevant to immunology and oncology. As part of our activities we have completed and are involved in multiple clinical trials, we have discovered repurposable drugs for the treatment of aggressive cancers, and made fundamental discoveries about how immune and cancer cells function.

The Snijder Lab is an open, respectful, fun, family-friendly, and energetic group that greatly values both cultural and cognitive diversity.

About the BIIE

The Botnar Institute of Immune Engineering is a newly founded non-profit research organization aiming to become a world leading research institute for the advanced study of immunological systems with a mission to develop translational solutions for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease.

The scientific foundation of the BIIE is based on the intersection of three interdisciplinary subdomains: (i) systems immunology, (ii) synthetic immunology and (iii) computational immunology. The BIIE will serve as a hub for multidisciplinary science, by uniting people with diverse expertise in immunology, biomedicine, bioengineering, systems and synthetic biology, computational biology, artificial intelligence and machine learning. As part of the mission of BIIE to make a lasting impact, it will dedicate significant efforts in training early-stage researchers in this unique multidisciplinary environment, thus enabling them to become future leaders in Immune Engineering.

• Develop and execute cell-based, biochemical and immunohistological assays
• Process and work with primary human samples (such as blood or cancer biopsies)
• Support ongoing innovative clinical trials in the area of precision medicine
• Perform drug screens on human samples and first-pass data analyses
• Assist in planning and executing experiments
• Collect, record, and analyze data
• Maintain laboratory equipment and supplies
• Prepare reagents and solutions
• Contribute to literature reviews and reports
• Assist with general lab maintenance and organization

• BSc, MSc, or training as lab technician in biology / cell biology / biochemistry / immunology or equivalent
• Experience in mammalian cell culture in a biosafety level 2 environment preferred
• Experience in cellular assays and immunological techniques preferred
• Strong organizational and communication skills
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Attention to detail and accuracy in record keeping
• Willingness to learn methods for drug screening, automated microscopy, and computational data analysis

Selected candidates will be invited for either online and/or in-person interviews in English.

Join BIIE as a Research Assistant to explore cutting-edge immunology research and shape the future of immune engineering in a dynamic, multidisciplinary team. Apply today!