Assistant Staff Scientist at Oregon Health & Science University – Portland, Oregon

Assistant Staff Scientist

US-OR-Portland

Requisition ID: 2026-38377
Position Category: Research
Job Type: Research
Position Type: Regular Full-Time
Posting Department: CEDAR - Knight Cancer Institute
Posting Salary Range: $67,787 - $113,235 per year with offer based on experience, education and internal equity
Posting FTE: 1.00
Posting Schedule: Monday through Friday
Posting Hours: 8:30am to 5:00pm plus occasional nights and weekends
HR Mission: School of Medicine
Drug Testable: No

Department Overview

Overview: The Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) center is a collaborative institution within the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. The Knight Cancer Institute, known as one of the pioneers in personalized cancer medicine, is an international leader in research and cancer treatment. At CEDAR our mission is to detect and stop lethal cancers at the earliest stage because early detection saves lives. This is an ambitious goal, one that requires novelty, creativity, and innovation. We are comprised of biologists, chemists, biomedical engineers, computationalists, and clinicians conducting groundbreaking translational cancer research to help people maintain a high quality of life and reduce cancer mortality, to create a global early detection community, and to have a positive impact on the Oregon economy.

Our Commitment to Diversity: CEDAR is committed to increasing the diversity of the campus community. We are dedicated to promoting inclusion and multiculturalism by having outstanding researchers of diverse backgrounds work together on multiple projects. We encourage high-risk, high-reward research projects because defeating cancer requires out-of-the-box thinking and new perspectives. Our research is milestone driven to ensure that each project is fulfilling its stated goals.

Every Knight Cancer employee is expected to embody our guiding principles:

• We act BOLDLY—Breakthroughs require pushing the boundaries of science, exploring new frontiers, and thinking differently
• We SUPPORT each other—Respect leads to trust, which leads to excellence
• We work as a CONNECTED team—We must leverage our collective brain power to conquer cancer because no one individual can do it alone

Function/Duties of Position

Assistant Scientists have at least 3 years of postgraduate research experience in the practice of science and team science. They are likely to have deep expertise in a singular area of focus but may also have worked as boundary spanners across multiple fields. This position requires a satisfactory track record of scholarly activity, including high-quality peer-reviewed publications, grant funding, patent awards, or other translational research activities. Assistant Scientists will have expertise in therapeutic development. The goal of this SRA is to rapidly develop and translate treatments for age related disease into the clinic. Typically, this position will be filled by Ph.D.s with significant postdoctoral research experience. A record of collaborative research, or the potential for collaborative research, is a requirement for this position. Assistant Scientists should have the potential to both lead and participate on team projects.

Duties Include:

• Laboratory Research Project Management: Independently develop and manage research experiments, determining the most suitable methods to be used. Interpret and perform complex data analysis on experimental results and determine whether they are consistent with goals. Ensure that research team members maintain accurate and detailed records of all experimental procedures, data collections and analysis performed.
• Scientific Project Oversight: With input from Dr. Fischer, help to develop and oversee laboratory research projects. Including identification of scientific problem, design of approach to address it, and perform required experiments both in vitro and in vivo. Assign personnel, track their progress, and ensure maximum productivity. Foster and support teamwork. Provide training and guidance to postdoctoral fellows, clinical research fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students. Maintain a high level of professional expertise through familiarity with current scientific literature. As needed, develop innovative techniques and experimental systems to meet research program goals.

Required Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in a relevant field and a minimum of 3 years of relevant post-doctoral work experience
• Experience in designing, executing, and troubleshooting in vivo studies using different murine tumor models in particular, tumor implant in the pancreas, which requires performing survival surgery
• In vivo tumor imaging: Ultrasound (pancreatic tumor detection and monitoring) and IVIS® Spectrum
• Drug administration via multiple routes: subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, intravenous, retro-orbital, and tail vein injection, oral gavage
• Tissue harvesting and processing of tumors, skin, bone marrow, spleen, lymph node, lung, and blood for downstream immune profiling
• Multi-color flow cytometry analysis, including panel design, sample preparation, and acquisition on conventional (BD Fortessa) and Spectral (Cytek Aurora) cytometers
• Imaging technique including ImmunoHistoChemistry and Immunofluorescence (tissue processing, sectioning, staining)
• CellBased assay such T-cell proliferation assay

Preferred Qualifications

• Five or more years in a research position, including at least 4 years of supervisory and project management experience
• Expertise in early therapeutics

Additional Details

Apply online. Please be sure to upload a Cover Letter and Resume/CV.

BENEFITS (delete what does not apply)

UNCLASSIFIED: #

We offer a variety of benefits on top of joining a thriving organization:

• Medical, dental and vision coverage at no or low cost to employees
  • Covered 100% for full-time employees and 88% for dependents
• Several retirement plans to choose from with contributions from OHSU
• 25 days a year of paid time off
• 8 days of sick time off
• Commuter subsidies
• Tuition reimbursement
• Access to group life insurance, disability insurance and other supplemental benefits
• Annual Merit Increase
• Growth/Development Opportunities
• Employee discounts to local and major businesses

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