Job Specifications
Title: Research Associate I – Recombinant Protein Expression
Location: San Diego, CA 92131
100% onsite
Duration: 09 months Contract
Position Summary
The Structural Biology and Protein Sciences group is seeking a highly motivated contractor to support recombinant protein production efforts, primarily utilizing insect cell expression systems. The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining eukaryotic cell cultures, generating and managing high-titer baculovirus stocks, and performing multi-liter scale protein expression and harvest workflows. Additional responsibilities include executing plate-based expression and purification profiling to enable rapid screening of construct and condition variants. This role requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to operate efficiently in a fast-paced research environment.
Key Responsibilities
• Maintain healthy eukaryotic cell cultures, including insect (Sf9, Sf21, High Five) and/or mammalian expression lines.
• Generate, amplify, and quality-control baculovirus stocks, including centralized storage and record management.
• Execute multi-liter scale recombinant protein expression experiments, including infection, culture monitoring, and cell harvest.
• Perform small-scale, plate-based expression and purification profiling to assess expression levels, solubility, and purification behavior.
• Maintain accurate and timely records of experimental data, cell line usage, and virus stock inventories.
• Operate and maintain basic laboratory instrumentation and contribute to general lab support activities as needed.
• Collaborate closely with team members to optimize expression workflows and troubleshoot technical issues.
Qualifications
• BS degree in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, or a related scientific discipline.
• Minimum of 3 years of hands-on laboratory experience, including work with insect cell culture (e.g., Sf9, Sf21, Hi5) and/or mammalian cell culture systems.
• Demonstrated experience in aseptic technique and routine maintenance of suspension cultures.
• Experience with the Client-to-Client baculovirus expression system, including donor plasmid preparation, bacmid generation, and virus amplification preferred.
• Familiarity with plate-based expression and purification approaches (e.g., 24–96 well plates and rapid IMAC and other affinity-based screens) preferred.
• Experience conducting multi-liter expression campaigns and associated downstream sample handling preferred.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and documentation skills.
• Ability to work independently and in cross-functional teams.
About the Company
Net2Source (N2S) is a global workforce solutions company recognized by SIA as the largest and fastest-growing Total Talent Solutions provider with a presence in 32 countries. and in-house Glo-Cal (global and local) teams to support our clients.
We carve out custom talent solutions, keeping People, Process, and Technology as the pillars of making the process simple, robust, and efficient. With over 3,500+ contractors working worldwide, we specialize in Contingent Staffing, RPO, Direct Sourcing, Payroll Solutions (EOR/AOR), ...
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