Junior Specialist – Nowakowski Lab Full-time NEW

Junior Specialist – Nowakowski Lab

The Nowakowski Lab in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF is seeking a Junior Specialist to join a translational research program at the interface of human brain tissue culture, viral vector engineering, and neurosurgical tissue procurement. This position sits at a unique intersection of basic neuroscience and clinical neurosurgery: the successful candidate will work directly with fresh human brain tissue obtained through close partnerships with UCSF neurosurgeons and will develop and apply genetic tools—including enhancer-driven AAV vectors and CRISPR-based platforms—to manipulate specific cell populations in ex vivo human cortical and subcortical slice preparations.

This position offers a rare opportunity for an early-career scientist to gain hands-on experience with primary human neural tissue and cutting-edge genetic tools in a lab whose work has been published in Nature, Science, Neuron, and Cell Stem Cell. It is an ideal stepping-stone towards graduate school or further translational research training.

The Junior Specialist will coordinate tissue procurement logistics directly with neurosurgeons, neurosurgical fellows, OR nurses, and the UCSF neuropathology team. This requires professional, respectful, and efficient communication. Respond rapidly to tissue availability notifications. The candidate must be comfortable with the unpredictable timing inherent to surgical schedules and prepared to mobilize quickly when tissue becomes available. Maintain ongoing professional relationships with clinical partners, ensuring that the research team is perceived as a reliable, well-organized collaborator that adds value to the clinical mission.

Key Responsibilities: Receive, process, and culture fresh human brain, establish and maintain organotypic human brain slice cultures using optimized protocols for long-term viability, including air–liquid interface and submerged culture systems. Optimize and troubleshoot culture conditions, including media composition, oxygenation, and incubation parameters, to maximize neuronal survival and circuit integrity in ex vivo preparations. Other skills and responsibilities will include production, titer, and apply adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for transduction of human brain slice cultures. Candidate will be responsible for developing and testing new tools for activity and gene expression manipulation in human ex vivo preparations by validating viral vector tropism, transduction efficiency, and cell type specificity using immunofluorescence, reporter expression analysis, and single-cell RNA-seq readouts. Other responsibilities will include serving as a primary point of contact between the Nowakowski Lab and clinical teams for all tissue procurement activities, maintaining clear, timely, and professional communication with neurosurgeons, surgical coordinators, pathology staff, and operating room personnel, communicating experimental plans and results clearly to a large, collaborative team of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, computational biologists, and the PI during lab meetings, one-on-one check-ins, and cross-lab collaborations, draft and update protocols, SOPs, and technical documentation for tissue handling, viral vector production, and culture maintenance, ensuring that methods are reproducible and accessible to all lab members. The candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to manuscripts, grant applications, and progress reports, particularly in describing tissue procurement workflows, culture protocols, and tool validation experiments, presenting data at lab meetings, departmental seminars, and consortium meetings; participate actively in journal clubs and research discussions.

Required Qualifications:

• Baccalaureate degree (or equivalent) in neuroscience, biology, bioengineering, molecular biology, or a related field; OR at least four years of research experience

Communication & Interpersonal Skills (Heavily Weighted)

• Outstanding verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate professionally and concisely with clinicians (neurosurgeons, fellows, residents), OR staff, and neuropathologists in fast-paced clinical settings
• Strong written communication skills, demonstrated through scientific writing, protocol documentation, or research reports
• Interpersonal maturity and professionalism to build and sustain productive relationships with clinical partners, where the research team's credibility depends on reliability, preparation, and respect for clinical workflows
• Collaborative mindset: ability to work effectively across disciplines (wet-lab biologists, computational scientists, engineers, clinicians) and communicate across different levels of scientific expertise

Technical Skills

• Familiarity with viral vector biology, particularly AAV production, titering, and transduction (or strong willingness to learn)
• Proficiency in standard molecular biology techniques: PCR, cloning, gel electrophoresis, Western blotting, immunofluorescence
• Experience with CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing or related genetic perturbation technologies

Work Style & Aptitude

• Demonstrated ability to work in a time-sensitive, unpredictable research environment where tissue availability is determined by surgical schedules
• Strong organizational skills with meticulous attention to detail in record-keeping, particularly for human tissue provenance and regulatory compliance
• Intellectual curiosity and initiative: willingness to read the primary literature, troubleshoot independently, and propose experimental improvements

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience with mammalian cell or tissue culture (primary tissue culture experience strongly preferred; brain slice culture experience is a significant plus)
• Comfort with fluorescence and confocal microscopy; experience with live imaging is a plus
• Exposure to electrophysiology (patch clamp or MEA) and/or single-cell genomics workflows is valued but not required

See Table 24B for the salary range for this position. A reasonable estimate for this position is $57,000 – $60,700.

UC San Francisco is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. The Weill Institute for Neurosciences, home to the Nowakowski Lab, brings together scientists and clinicians to accelerate breakthroughs in understanding the brain and developing treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. The Department of Neurological Surgery is the #1 NIH-funded neurosurgery program in the nation, and its commitment to integrating clinical care with basic science research creates a uniquely productive environment for translational neuroscience.