Jobs

Job Description:

NextGen Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases is excited to announce an opening for a new position, Senior Research Specialist. This role supports and coordinates day-to-day research and animal care operations across the Middlebush animal research complex, ensures compliance with approved protocols, and facilitates communication among research teams, veterinary staff, and animal care personnel. The position works closely with the facility manager while maintaining a primary focus on animal care coordination, research execution, and oversight of study-related activities across multiple projects and buildings.

In this role, you will regularly:

• Supervise and coordinate animal care personnel to ensure animal care tasks are implemented consistently, appropriately, and in alignment with approved research protocols across studies and facilities. 
• Participate in, assist with, and/or coordinate animal handling, sample collection, and study procedures as needed, in collaboration with research teams and veterinary staff. 
• Plan, organize, and coordinate animal research studies across multiple projects and facilities, ensuring activities are conducted according to approved protocols, timelines, and study designs; identify and resolve issues that arise during research execution.
• Serve as the primary point of contact between research teams, veterinarians, animal care staff, and the facility manager to ensure effective communication and coordination.
• Coordinate IBC and IACUC protocol submissions, amendments, renewals, and associated training documentation in collaboration with investigators.
• Implement and monitor research-related biosecurity, biosafety, and facility SOPs, including work conducted in BSL-2 animal research environments, ensuring compliance with approved SOPs, PPE compliance, and infection control practices, in coordination with the facility manager.
• Train and onboard research personnel, students, visitors, and animal care staff on study-specific procedures, animal handling expectations, and safety requirements.
• Coordinate animal inventories, study procedures, and animal movements, sampling schedules, and necropsy activities in support of active research projects.
• Respond to animal health concerns or research disruptions and work with the facility manager to communicate facility-related issues, escalate concerns appropriately, and assist with contingency planning.
• Ensure research activities comply with institutional, local, and federal regulations, maintaining organized, accurate, and up-to-date records related to animal use, procedures, training, and regulatory and study documentation.
• Collect, manage, and analyze research data, ensuring accurate and timely data entry, quality control, and reporting.
• Work with facility manager to coordinate the use of space, equipment, and supplies to ensure study readiness and continuity. 
• Support oversight of animal care and welfare in collaboration with veterinarians, ensuring research activities align with approved welfare and biosafety standards.
• Other job duties as assigned.

The successful candidate will demonstrate sound professional judgment, a strong work ethic, and the ability to prioritize multiple projects in a self-directed environment. This position involves regular presence in an active research setting, including BSL-2 environments, and close coordination with research, animal care, and veterinary teams. Strong problem solving, organizational, and communication skills are essential, along with a collaborative leadership approach and a commitment to meeting deadlines. Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Acrobat, as well as strong written and oral communication skills, are required.

Shift: Regular hours, Monday-Friday with occasional schedule adjustments, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, as required to support animal care, research projects, or facility needs.

Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of experience. Previous experience with animal handling is a must.

Hiring Range:  $52,915.20-$83,408.00 annual

Application Materials:

Application, resume, and cover letter

JobID: 58761

Job Description:

The Influenza Systems Biology Laboratory at the University of Missouri (MU) is looking for a dynamic and highly motivated Senior Scientist candidate in computational biology. Zoonotic pathogens pose a substantial global risk to public health and require an integrated One Health approach for their effective detection, control and mitigation or treatment. Over 60% of human infectious diseases originate in animals, predominantly from wildlife reservoirs, and over 70% of these zoonotic pathogens are “emerging”.

The missions of this lab are 1) to study ecology, evolution, and host-pathogen interaction for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases; especially influenza viruses, and 2) to develop and apply systems biology based translational approaches to create influenza-less animal population and human communities. Translational systems biology is an integrated, multi-scale, evidence-based approach that combines laboratory, clinical and computational methods with an explicit goal of developing effective means of control of biological processes for improving human health and rapid clinical application.

This Laboratory functions across Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, and MU Informatics Institute, and the lab is physically located at Bond Life Sciences Center.

The current projects aim to 1) identify and predict emerging risks of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses for both human and animals using genomics sequences, big data and machine learning approaches; 2) develop a universal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, optimize vaccine production and vaccination strategies for disease prevention and quarantine; 3) develop machine learning methods to predict vaccine efficacy for each individual based on personal data, a move towards precision medicine; 4) understand molecular mechanisms for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 evolution and virus-host interactions, including host tropisms, pathogenesis, and transmission.

Excellent oral and written communication skills, the ability to work independently and in a team and a broad interest in Systems Biology are expected for the following position.

Area of Specialization: Computational Biology

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

   Perform research in the areas of computational biology and bioinformatics;
   Research and stay current with project related scientific literature;
   Develop and validate new algorithms and tools to accomplish scientific objectives;
   Identify and implement creative solutions to overcome problems;
   Organize, interpret data, and derive study conclusions;
   Collaborate with internal and external investigators on multiple research projects ensuring scientific significance and feasibility;
   Summarize results of studies in the form of scientific abstracts and manuscripts;
   Serve as a resource to provide scientific information needed for various initiatives;
   Contributes to teaching activities by preparing and presenting educational seminars.
   Assist with grant/contract preparation by researching background, significance, and planning statistics.
   Participate in professional societies and conferences appropriate to the incumbent’s specific field/discipline.

Note: Additional duties and responsibilities may be assigned that are project and/or discipline specific

Shift: Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm (onsite)

Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of experience. Previous experience with animal handling is a must. Master’s Degree preferred.

Hiring Range:  $60,000-$88,000 annual

Application Materials:

Application, resume/CV, and cover letter

JobID: 55546

Job Description:

The Wan Lab at the Bond Life Sciences Center is seeking applications for a Post Doctoral Fellow in the area of Computational Biology at the Influenza Systems Biology Laboratory and the Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Missouri. Our lab is affiliated with the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering; Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine; and MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics at University of Missouri (MU).  The Wan Lab currently holds more than $28 million in committed grant funding.

The lab is physically located at the MU Bond Life Sciences Center and focuses research on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, especially influenza viruses and SARS-COV-2, by developing and applying integrated, multi-scale, and evidence-based approaches that combine laboratory, clinical and computational methods. The lab has access to the regional BSL-3 and ABSL-3 biocontainment laboratory at the Laboratory for Infectious Diseases Research.  This position will be responsible for performing various duties necessary to further research on multiple grants.

Responsibilities:

Responsibilities will include developing genome-based influenza and/or SARS-CoV-2 risk assessment algorithms, designing broadly protective influenza and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, modeling the impacts of immune responses on vaccine effectiveness, clinical outcomes, and transmission risks of virus infections, and/or studying evolutionary and transmission dynamics in individuals and populations.

The candidate will be responsible for recording all methods, results, and other relevant information in an organized manner as instructed by the Principal Investigator. The candidate will be expected to perform experiments, data analysis and manuscript preparation. The successful candidate should be highly motivated and is expected to work collaboratively within a team.

Shift: Regular hours, Monday-Friday with flexibility for weekend/evening hours as required for experiment needs

Minimum Qualifications: PhD in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or related field. Experience with genomic analysis is preferred.

Hiring Range:  $62,232-$67,824

Application Materials:

Cover letter, CV, Contacts of three references

JobID: 56921