Research Associate, Vienna

The role

The Research Associate will perform derivation, quality control, and biobanking of iPSC lines. They will also develop organoids, run assays, and manage data to support human-first drug discovery.

What you will do

• Derive iPSC lines from donor blood through isolation, colony picking, clonal expansion and cryopreservation
• Interpret cell line quality control data using internationally recognized acceptance criteria
• Reduce sources of variation affecting iPSC-generation success and quality
• Maintain iPSC and primary cultures to a consistent standard
• Differentiate iPSCs towards immune organoids using in-house protocols
• Run iterative optimisation cycles to improve organoid longevity, reproducibility and functional performance
• Design, validate and run readouts including flow cytometry, (q)PCR, immunofluorescence, imaging, ELISA and Luminex
• Prepare samples for external sequencing and manage submissions with providers
• Perform routine tasks such as equipment maintenance
• Interpret data and document in the electronic lab notebook and write Work Instructions and SOPs

Required qualifications

• MSc in molecular biology, cell biology, immunology, bioengineering or a related field
• At least one year of tissue culture experience with excellent aseptic technique
• Hands-on experience with standard molecular and cellular assays, including flow cytometry with panel design and independent analysis, (q)PCR and ELISA
• Familiarity with electronic lab notebooks or laboratory information systems
• Excellent command of English

Nice to have

• Strong preference for aseptic human pluripotent stem cell culture (iPSC or ESC)
• Experience with reprogramming, clonal derivation, karyotyping or genotyping, or cryopreservation at scale
• 3D culture, organoid or spheroid experience
• Immunology knowledge, particularly lymphocyte biology
• Experience preparing samples for NGS
• German

Benefits

• Flexible work arrangements may also be possible to support work-life balance

About the company

parallel-bio is building a human-first drug discovery platform powered by organoids and AI. The company has raised ~$30M from investors including AIX Ventures, Marc Benioff, Jeff Dean, and Y Combinator.