Career Center

This RAI will be part of the Patton lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University and will be key person responsible for maintaining the Stevenson Center Zebrafish Facility as well as technical support in the Patton lab. This position will be expected to maintain and oversee husbandry of the various zebrafish genetic lines as well as keep the fish facility clean and in compliance with the Vanderbilt IACUC office. Weekend work will often be required as fish need to feed every day. The position will be responsible for ensuring the Stevenson Center Fish facility is able to provide healthy adult zebrafish for all experimental needs in the Patton lab. This position will report directly to Dr. Patton.

The Department of Biological Sciences has an excellent staff to facilitate issue resolution involving personnel, financial management, supply and equipment orders proposal submission, and infrastructure. The faculty in the department carry out diverse research projects and often collaborate with other members within the department and in nearby departments. This department covers a broad spectrum of biology, from molecules and cells to tissues and organisms to populations and ecosystems. Award-winning faculty and graduate students teach and carry out research in Biochemistry, Structural Biology and Biophysics, Cell Biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Computational Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology, Developmental Biology, and Neurobiology.

Duties and Responsibilities

Fish Facility

• Clean and set up 2 brine shrimp cultures each morning. This requires bleach treatment of tanks, rinsing, creating the proper salt water solution, monitoring the temperature, light exposure, and oxygen. Then, incubating the brine shrimp cysts overnight.
• Harvest brine shrimp cultures each morning and afternoon. Capture shrimp, rinse, and allocate into feeding bottles.
• Prepare flake food each day in a food processor.
• Prepare baby food each day.
• Feed adults shrimp and flake food twice each day (mornings around 9 and afternoons around 2)
• Feed baby fish twice each day.
• Feed adults and babies on Saturday and Sunday mornings (only once a day on weekends).
• Monitor and record all water quality measurements (salt, pH, temperature). Adjust as necessary.
• Monitor and record water treatment procedures. Ensure water softener is functioning, filters are up to date and clean.
• Change fish tanks and wash all tanks at least once a week
• Change filters and nets daily.
• Maintain water supplies to each tank each day
• Keep facility clean and neat.
• Record success of fish crosses and enter data on Fish Database
• Set up matings of wild type fish each day.
• Capture embryos each morning, move to petri dishes and maintain in lab incubator for 24-48 hours
• Move 48 hours fish to tanks in the fish facility.
• Other duties as assigned.

Patton lab

• Assist with ordering and stocking of lab purchases
• Maintain CO2 incubators for tissue culture
• Isolate plasmid DNA
• Isolate genomic DNA
• Perform PCR for screening constructs
• Microinject zebrafish embryos for transgenic animal production.
• Monitor success of microinjections by fluorescent microscopy.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

* A Bachelor's Degree in a related field is preferred, but not necessary

Supervisory Relationships

This position does not have supervisory responsibility; this position reports administratively and functionally to the Lab PI.

Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

At Vanderbilt University, we are intentional about and assume accountability for fostering advancement and respect for equity, diversity, and inclusion for all students, faculty, and staff. Our commitment to diversity makes us who we are. We have created a community that celebrates differences and lets individuality thrive. As part of this commitment, we actively value diversity in our workplace and learning environments as we seek to take advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of everyone. The diverse voices of Vanderbilt represent an invaluable resource for the University in its efforts to fulfill its mission and strive to be an example of excellence in higher education.

Vanderbilt University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Women, minorities, people with disabilities, and protected veterans are encouraged to apply.

Please note, all candidates selected for an offer of employment are subject to pre-employment background checks, which may include but are not limited to, based on the role for which they have been selected: criminal history, education verification, social media review, motor vehicle records, credit history, and professional license verification.