Research Associate

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation's top public universities. Known for its beautiful campus, world-class medical care, commitment to the arts and top athletic programs, Carolina is an ideal place to teach, work and learn.

One of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, Chapel Hill has diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.

University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package, paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We accomplish this by providing leadership and excellence in the interrelated areas of patient care, education and research.

Patient care: We promote health and provide superb clinical care while maintaining our strong tradition of reaching underserved populations and reducing health disparities across North Carolina and beyond.

Education: We prepare tomorrow's healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers from all backgrounds by facilitating learning within innovative and integrated curricula and team-oriented interprofessional education to ensure a highly skilled workforce.

Research: We develop and support a rich array of outstanding health sciences research programs, centers and resources. We provide infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration among disciplines throughout and beyond our university to support outstanding research. We foster programs in the areas of basic, translational, mechanistic and population research.

The Research Associate is to perform research in an interdisciplinary lab interested in the role of different growth factors in post-traumatic osteoarthritis. The lab performs animal studies in osteoarthritis models to mimic cartilage, bone, synovium and muscle degeneration during disease progression. One of the long-term goals is to use in vivo measures of muscle strength and pain to understand how joint instability affects disease symptoms and muscle strength. In addition, the lab performs ex vivo studies on muscle and joint tissues, as well as histological evaluation of osteoarthritis progression. The ideal candidate will be involved in developing, designing and independently performing deep longitudinal muscle analyses and pain evaluation, as well as cross-sectional studies involving joint tissue evaluation (bone, cartilage and synovium) and muscle morphology (tibialis anterior and quadricep). The candidate will be also involved in designing and conducting in vitro experiments using isolated chondrocytes and fibroblasts from human tissues. The candidate will need to establish new research methods or improve the quality of existing methodologies, showing critical thinking, problem solutions and data elaboration. In cooperation with the PI, the candidate will lead the project and coordinate data collection and analysis. The candidate will also assist in manuscript and grant writing, contribute and co-author publications, present results to meetings and/or conferences. The candidate will collaborate with other personnel for potential options to improve the quality of the experimental work and/or design.

Relevant post-Baccalaureate degree required (or foreign degree equivalent); for candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity, will accept a relevant Bachelor's degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. May require terminal degree and licensure.

Experience in animal handling. We require some experience with muscle measurement analysis, in particular, exposure to the use of the 3-in-1 whole Animal System (Aurora Scientific) and its software. Advanced degree (ex: Master's or PhD) in a related field of study.

Preferred experience with histological techniques, use of some pain behavioral measure systems (such as von Frey and Incpacitance Meter), human tissue culture, qPCR, protein tissue extraction, western blotting and ELISA. Preferred experience with data collection, data management, and data analysis. Experience with organizational skills, strong written and verbal communication skills, and capacity for working independently and engaging in innovative problem-solving is preferred.

The University is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all to apply without regard to age, color, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.