Technician

The Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London wishes to appoint a Technician to work within its laboratories.

The post holder will be responsible for collecting, processing, logging, and long-term storage of blood, faecal and PBMC (peripheral blood mononuclear cells) samples and perform DNA extraction from these samples. Other main tasks are to archive, retrieve and ship out to third party collaborators a large volume of samples in a high-throughput environment.

The post holder will liaise with the Senior Technician (Biosamples) and DTR Biobank Laboratory Manager on setting up activities and deliverables related to work in the laboratories, including the level 2 containment microbiome laboratory.

A degree in Biology/Biotechnology/Natural sciences is desirable and substantial experience in a high-throughput laboratory environment as a laboratory technician handling large volumes of human samples, particularly PBMC and faecal samples within a class 2 environment is essential., To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• Minimum level 3 qualification (e.g. A levels, AS levels, International Baccalaureate diploma or other level 3 qualification) plus work experience in a relevant technical/scientific post



• Strong verbal and written communication skills



• Strong planning & organisational skills, managing competing priorities, accurately recording information, and able to recognise and resolve problems



• Solutions-focused, with the ability to work with minimal supervision, knowing when to escalate complex problems



• Substantial work experience in a high-throughput laboratory environment, ideal biobanking environments and procedures that includes safe handling of liquid nitrogen for sample storage



• Awareness of data protection and confidentiality issues



• Must be able to work safely, unsupervised and to good laboratory practice (GLP)



• Experience in extracting DNA from various human tissues, both by manually and automated techniques


Desirable criteria

• Competency in working with various computer software (e.g. Outlook, MS Word, Excel, and particularly Access for sample storage and analysis of data)



• Experience of isolation of PBMC (Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells) and storage in liquid nitrogen



• Experience of handling human biological samples in a level 2 containment laboratory
  
  The Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology is based at St. Thomas's Hospital in the School of Life Course Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at King's College London.


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