Clinical Research Assistant

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The unique backgrounds and life experiences of VCU's community are what drive the university forward. VCU's Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation’s (OVPRI) mission is to foster transformative research, discovery and innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University through excellence in service. At VCU we combine learning, research, creativity, service and discovery with a commitment to inclusive excellence. VCU is a premier, urban, public research university home to multiple nationally ranked programs.

We partner with faculty in all schools and departments as they seek funding, plan studies, establish collaborations, calculate budgets, submit grant applications, negotiate industry contracts and secure patents and licensing agreements.

Through our passion for discovery and willingness to take on challenges, we continue to advance the work that matters most and position the university as a national leader in research, innovation, creativity and scholarship. Our commitment has resulted in record levels of sponsored research and has placed VCU among the nation’s premier public research universities. OVPRI link https://research.vcu.edu/

All full-time staff are eligible for our generous benefits package that includes choices for health, vision, and dental coverage, life-insurance, short and long-term disability coverage, retirement planning, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, flexible spending accounts, tuition benefits, significant paid-time off,12 paid holidays, and more. Explore our benefits further here: https://hr.vcu.edu/current-employees/benefits/

The OVPRI and our Tissue and Data Acquisition and Analysis Core (TDAAC) invites all interested candidates to apply for an exciting opportunity as a full-time Clinical Research Assistant.

Primary Purpose and General Responsibilities:

The Tissue and Data Acquisition and Analysis Core (TDAAC) is a shared research resource at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center that collects and banks tissue samples for cancer research and provides histology/pathology services and expertise to researchers and students. We are seeking a clinical research assistant to identify patients scheduled for cancer surgery, to obtain patient consents, and to help maintain the biorepository and TDAAC database. Under the supervision of the core director and laboratory manager, the assistant will serve our clients by following our standard procedures and policies. The assistant will be responsible for interfacing with patients to obtain their (in-person) consent for enrollment into the TDAAC biorepository. The assistant will help maintain the physical biorepository by organizing, labeling, and storing samples in accordance with the TDAAC IRB-approved protocol, as well as the TDAAC database by creating entries for new specimens, tracking consent status, and annotating the specimens with information found in medical records. The assistant will share the responsibility of submitting a list of priority specimens for collection to Anatomic Pathology each day. They will also work closely with the Massey Clinical Trials Office to facilitate proper transport of clinical trial specimens from the procedure room to Anatomic Pathology - this includes coordinating with clinical trial teams via emails, reviewing clinical trial protocols, and entering the procedure to retrieve research specimens. The assistant will interface with clients/investigators/clinical trial teams to provide excellent, timely service, keep detailed records of services provided via Smartsheet and Excel, and monitor inventory of supplies and place orders as needed. They will also assist with day-to-day lab operations. Such duties include monitoring liquid nitrogen levels for dewars and freezers and ordering new tanks when necessary, communicating with Pathologists to have new specimens reviewed, retrieving banked specimens from Anatomic Pathology, and monitoring Viewpoint to ensure that all temperature-sensitive units in the lab are operating within their normal ranges. This position will also require adherence to safety protocols and published Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), general equipment maintenance (including scheduling repairs and routine service), compliance with VCU Health System’s training requirements regarding sensitive data that contains personal health information, communication with researchers to ensure they have approved protocols in place before they receive any material from TDAAC, working with human tissue samples, and other duties as assigned.