Job description
Curates scientific reagents/data and facilitate the exchange and sharing of such resources within the Beta Cell Biology Consortium and associated activities. Develops data standards and
guidelines; standardize data; recommends mechanisms to aggregate and share data.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt had a vision of a place that would "contribute to strengthening the ties that should exist between all sections of our common country" when he gave a million
dollars to create a university in 1873. Today, that vision has been realized in Vanderbilt, an internationally recognized research university in Nashville, Tennessee, with strong partnerships among
its 10 schools, neighboring institutions and the community.
The Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology is seeking an experienced and highly motivated individual to work within the Beta Cell Biology Consortium to facilitate the exchange and sharing of
scientific resources with the Consortium and associated activities. As Assistant Director, the individual will join a team of professionals responsible for providing support for Consortium
activities.
The Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology is home for the Coordinating Center for the Beta Cell Biology Consortium (BCBC - www.betacell.org). The BCBC is a NIDDK-funded Team Science effort in its
8th year of funding. The success of the Consortium in the area of pancreatic islet and beta cell biology requires that the Coordinating Center expand to meet the increase in activities and
responsibilites.
The position will serve to bridge scientific communications between Consortium investigators and the Coordinating Center bioinformatics and administrative teams. The Assistant Director will be
involved in data collection, data curation and validation, science writing and communication, as well as be involved with event planning.
Job responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:
- Ability to interact productively with scientist and laboratory staff to obtain and document detailed descriptions of experiments, salient information and reagents produced.
- Establishing and maintaining data standards, policies and/or guidelines within the scope of the current policies.
- Maintaining data sharing and exchange policies and their implementation within distribution network.
- Coordinating, organizing and standardizing data for inclusion into a web-based informatics platform
- Science writing and communication
- Ability to work effectively in a highly distributed and informal organizational environment
- Ability to research, write and speak clearly, and bring order to information that is often diffuse in nature.
Requirements:
This position requires Doctorate (PhD or a DPhil) degree in the biomedical sciences or in a related field and a minimum of 24 months of experience. Knowledge of genetics, stem and/or developmental
biology, creation or use of monoclonal antibodies, creation or use of genetically-modified embryonic stem cells and mice, and/or creation or use of recombinant adenoviruses is expected. Knowledge of
relational databases and principles of query structures and schemas is highly desirable or a willingness to learn about data curation, data modeling and query languages. Experience with public
scientific databases and their architectures, data-gathering principles and methodologies, data dissemination and internet technologies are also highly desirable.