Hematology Tissue Bank Technician

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Division of Hematology wishes to hire a full-time laboratory technician to work in its Hematologic Malignancies Tissue Bank, located on the UCSF Parnassus Campus.

Job Overview: As part of its clinical translational research program, the UCSF Division of Hematology maintains an archive of blood, bone marrow, and other samples from patients with blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. The samples are preserved in a long-term liquid nitrogen storage facility for future use in research aimed at better understanding the causes of blood cancers, and hopefully, to develop better treatments so that more patients can be cured.

Responsibilities:

Technical: The Tissue Bank Technician is responsible for obtaining samples from clinical areas where they are acquired from patients (ie, the hospital or clinic) and returning them to the Tissue Bank Lab in a timely manner. Samples are then processed following established protocols in compliance with universal precautions. Processing will generally involved viable cryopreservation, and will sometimes involve further processing to select leukocyte subsets and/or harvest DNA/RNA or proteins from cells. The Tissue Bank Technician will be required to maintain annual training for the handling of human specimens.

Database management: Samples are identified with unique patient identifiers and a database is maintained by the Tissue Bank Technician to store relevant sample information. The Tissue Bank Technician will be required to maintain appropriate HIPAA certification for access to protected health information and participation in clinical research.

Administrative: The Tissue Bank Technician will be responsible for maintaining the inventory of supplies used in the Tissue Bank, including selecting and ordering reagents, expense tracking, and reporting of monthly activities and reagent consumption. 

Availability: This is a full-time position. The Tissue Bank Technician is expected to be available for work Monday through Friday and sufficiently flexible to accommodate occasional deviations from normal work hours if preservation of clinical material necessitates.

Qualifications:

Technical:

1. BS, BA, or MS with minimum 3 years prior laboratory experience
2. Strong understanding of cell biology and scientific/medical terminology
3. Prior experience with sterile technique, cell culture, and handling of patient samples
4. Familiarity with FACS analysis/sorting and DNA/RNA isolation techniques
5. Ability to follow SOPs

Database management:

1. Ability to extract data from clinical reports and transfer to Tissue Bank database
2. Familiarity with MS Excel and Word

Administrative:

1. Demonstration of organization skills and attention to detail required to:
   1. Manage the day-to-day lab operations
   2. Coordinate sample collection from clinical teams
   3. Ensure lab is properly stocked and equipment is maintained
   4. Ensure availability of resources, equipment and staff when samples become available
   5. Provide monthly reporting of tissue bank activities
2. Strong problem-solving and communication skills and ability to work independently
3. Background check required prior to hiring