Staff Scientist, Department of Surgery

A staff scientist is required to perform state of the art research in a lab within the Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. The labs are run by Dr. Victoria Findlay and Dr. David Turner. The successful candidate is expected to conduct research, analyze data, publish papers, and mentor junior researchers from all levels. The Staff scientist will manage projects and ensure ethical and effective research processes. They may also work to secure funding, collaborate with other scientists, and present findings. The successful candidate will use their expertise to advance scientific knowledge and contribute to the development of new technologies and innovations within the lab.

A successful candidate must be dedicated to achieving scientific excellence in a highly collaborative research group. They will foster this throughout the development of a research group focused on defining the links between social, environmental and biological risk factors on cancer disparities.

Research Outline: By addressing health inequity, disparities in cancer outcomes have been reduced, but stubbornly persist for some cancer types and have increased for others. The question remains if enduring cancer disparities arise solely out of health inequities. Instead, these inequities may act together with an individual’s biology in defining cancer risk. The labs research assesses how a newly termed exposure named “bio-social determinant of health” can be applied to describe non-enzymatic glycoxidation and how it can report on the dynamic and varied impact of societal, environmental, and biological cancer risk factors on the tumor microenvironment.

Primary Responsibilities
•Manage projects and collaborations through project initiation, strategy development, strategic planning, execution, and closeout of phases of projects
•Generate data for ongoing research projects and for future grant applications
•Train members of the research team in lab protocols and equipment, and maintaining standard operating procedures
•Support in the management of the lab and ongoing lab operations
•Assist with managing budget, personnel, and space relating to the labs research
•Direct work assignments and ensure the staff have the necessary resources to accomplish their assigned tasks
•Additional weekend and holiday work may be required when experiments require it