Research Associate, Molecular Biology and NGS, evening

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Job description

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe's growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms. Today, our foundry is developing over 40 different organisms to make different products across multiple industries.Core to our organism engineering pipeline is the testing and analysis of our engineered strains. We leverage 2nd and 3rd generation sequencing as well as other 'omics to get a detailed picture of the performance of our strains. To help facilitate this, we're looking for a dedicated Research Associate to join our team and assist with NGS-related operations. Critical to this role is a strong background in diverse applications of NGS, as well as expertise in molecular biology across a range of input materials and species. We will look to you to help design experimental plans, make process improvements, and guide future development of NGS capabilities.Please note that this position is for the 2nd shift in our rotation. Hours are 2:00pm - 10:00pm, Monday through Friday.ResponsibilitiesFollow established SOPs to perform NGS wet lab experiments, using a wide range of bacterial, fungal, plant, and mammalian cells across multiple NGS platformsInteract with program team members and other foundry teams to receive and process samplesTake corrective action if Quality Control results are not within acceptable limitsTrain on new protocols and contribute to SOP improvementsContribute to Lean/Six Sigma efforts on shared workspacesKeep an organized work space and a neat laboratory notebookParticipate in maintaining inventory and ordering of laboratory suppliesAssist in development efforts and other laboratory duties as necessaryDesired Experience and CapabilitiesAbility to work 2nd shift (Monday through Friday, from 2:00pm to 10:00pm)Associate's degree or higher in a relevant fieldAt least one year of relevant experience with molecular biology protocols (such as DNA extraction and amplification and modification, gene synthesis, NGS, bacteria culturing, qPCR), as well as understanding of related reagentsFamiliarity with high-throughput automationPreferred Experience and CapabilitiesExperience with at least one of the following techniques and platforms: Illumina NGS, Oxford Nanopore, RNAseq, RT-qPCR, ChIPseq, 10X genomics, PacBioAbility to work independently and as part of team in a fluid, fast-paced environmentAbility to work effectively in a cross-functional team environmentFlexibility and willingness to learn in a rapidly changing, growing organizationTo learn more about Ginkgo, check out some recent press:What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: 'If we try, we can win' (CNBC)Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)We also feel that it's important to point out the obvious here there's a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.We're developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can and will impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it's something we'll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it's critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.Apply for this job