Animal Biologist

Position Objective: Provide services as an Animal Biologist in support of the overall functions of the VRC/CIS on the NIH Bethesda campus by supporting collaborative research in the intramural community of the NIH.

• Assist Veterinarian in malaria vaccine and pathology research.
• Oversee the design and implementation of malaria antibody and vaccine studies in mice.
• Help educate new staff for in vivo experiments in mice.
• Make detailed observations about experiments.
• Maintain clear and accurate documentation.
• Assist in the preparation of technical reports, summaries, and protocols.
• Perform specialized laboratory procedures: histology techniques, blood smear preparation, flow cytometry, malaria parasite quantification, in vivo mouse imaging with IVIS Spectrum system, digital image processing with Spectrum software.
• Provide prescribed treatments, animal surveillance, and environmental enrichment.
• Communicate all animal health abnormalities with Animal Program Director and scientific staff.
• Read and understand the VRC Animal Study Protocols.
• Perform or assist PI’s with a variety of technical procedures.
• Assist in the scheduling of technical requests.
• Perform injections via intravenous, subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, intradermal, and/or intramuscular route.
• Collect blood samples, harvest tissue or organs using aseptic techniques, cell counts, peritoneal lavages, skin punch biopsies, and splenectomies, animal identification using ear punches or ear tags.
• Perform in vitro malaria functional assays.
• Maintain mouse colonies, breeding, and weaning of offspring.
• Perform and monitor mouse sedation.
• Maintain Anopheles mosquito colonies.
• Infect Anopheles mosquitos with transgenic malaria pathogens.
• Dissect malaria parasites from mosquito salivary glands.
• Perform inoculations with malaria sporozoites for challenge studies.
• Perform malaria natural transmission studies.
• Prepare and submit animal health records.
• Maintain breeder log, and keep PI’s updated on colony status.
• Collect and organize data for research projects by maintaining database.