Staff Associate II - Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics Laboratory

Role at a Glance

HLA Laboratory - Columbia University Irving Medical Center

The CUIMC HLA Lab seeks a qualified candidate to join our growing team.

Schedule: Full Time, 35 hours /wk. The schedule will be structured to cover the morning shift with some flexibility. The Staff Associate must take turns to serve on-call coverage for deceased donors cross-matching during off hours and holidays.

Position responsibilities:

Clinical duties - Staff Associate must be able to perform molecular HLA typing using Next-generation sequencing (NGS), rSSO Luminex-based, and R-T PCR methodologies. Staff Associates must analyze and interpret the clinical testing results and assign HLA-class I and class II typing. Staff Associate can perform serum screening of anti-HLA antibodies by CDC and Luminex-based SPA; also, Staff Associate must be able to crossmatch with both CDC and FCXM. The Staff Associate must serve on-call coverage for deceased donor cross-matching and can make independent judgments without supervision.

Maintains equipment and records; performs proficiency testing, quality control, and quality assurance activities; performs miscellaneous functions required to maintain smooth department operation, such as reagent ordering, inventory control, and reagent preparation; and is required to use the laboratory information systems (LIS) for clinical operation.

In addition, the Staff Associate is responsible for training residents, fellows, and new technicians.

Research-related duties - The Staff Associate will conduct basic and translational research studies in the Transplantation field, perform experiments to characterize immune regulatory mechanisms and monitor the immune status of transplant recipients.

Lab Mission/Purpose

Columbia University Irving Medical Center's Immunogenetics and Cellular Immunology (ICI) Laboratory has been a pioneer in the HLA field, with a 50-year history of excellence in clinical testing.

We are certified and accredited by the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). The laboratory offers comprehensive quality testing and consultation in three distinct NYSDOH areas of accreditation: histocompatibility, cellular immunology, and transplant monitoring.

We provide a full range of pre- and post-transplant immunological tests for recipients and donors of solid organs or hematopoietic stem cells, such as:

* HLA genotyping by low- and high-resolution molecular techniques for transplantation and/or disease association studies.
* Screening for anti-HLA or donor specific antibodies using complement-mediated cytotoxicity (CDC), Flow Cytometry (FC), and solid phase assays (SPA).
* Crossmatching of recipients with potential donors by CDC and Flow Cytometry assay.
* Post-transplant immune monitoring by CDC, SPA, and lymphocyte growth assay.

Minimum Education Requirements

-Bachelor's degree (or higher) in natural sciences (Chemistry or Biology preferred) plus 4 years of specialized experience in high-complexity testing in a clinical laboratory setting.

Minimum Skills Required:

-Prior experience in Histocompatibility testing is requisite.

-Ability to communicate effectively in English with colleagues and outside personnel

-NYS Clinical Laboratory Technologist (CLT) is required.

Salary Range: $95.424.74.-$95.424.74.