What are the responsibilities and job description for the Research Biological Science Laboratory Technician (Without Compensation) position at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs?
Summary
Please note: There is no pay associated with this position. This position serves as a Without Compensation Research Biological Laboratory Technician (Animal) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings - and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position - applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement - 11/02/2026. Specialized Experience: At least one year of full-time duties performing and/or assisting with laboratory experiments listed in major duties Prior research activity in a biomedical research field involving stress signaling in eukaryotes Authorship on research manuscripts due to meaningful contributions as reflected by direct participation in the planning - execution - and completion of research objectives for a program. OR Education: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in any combination of scientific or technical courses such as biology - chemistry - statistics - entomology - animal husbandry - botany - physics - agriculture - or mathematics. At least 6 semester hours of courses must have been directly related to the position to be filled. The successful completion of a full course of study of at least 12 months in a school for clinical laboratory technicians may be substituted for specialized experience. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of experience and education. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience - including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g. - Peace Corps - AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g. - professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies - knowledge - and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience - including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work involves periods of prolonged standing as well as lifting of moderately heavy items.
Duties
Please note: There is no pay associated with this position. This position serves as a Without Compensation Research Biological Laboratory Technician (Animal) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings - and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position - applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement - 11/02/2026. Specialized Experience: At least one year of full-time duties performing and/or assisting with laboratory experiments listed in major duties Prior research activity in a biomedical research field involving stress signaling in eukaryotes Authorship on research manuscripts due to meaningful contributions as reflected by direct participation in the planning - execution - and completion of research objectives for a program. OR Education: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in any combination of scientific or technical courses such as biology - chemistry - statistics - entomology - animal husbandry - botany - physics - agriculture - or mathematics. At least 6 semester hours of courses must have been directly related to the position to be filled. The successful completion of a full course of study of at least 12 months in a school for clinical laboratory technicians may be substituted for specialized experience. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of experience and education. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience - including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g. - Peace Corps - AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g. - professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies - knowledge - and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience - including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work involves periods of prolonged standing as well as lifting of moderately heavy items.
Duties
- Major Duties: The procedures to be performed include - but are not limited to - the following: biospecimen handling and storage including liquid nitrogen cold storage RNA - DNA - and protein preparation from mammalian cell and rodent samples recombinant DNA techniques including PCR - cloning - transformation - mini and maxi DNA preps - rtPCR studies - next-generation sequencing library generation and analysis protein techniques including cell extract preparation - quantification - electrophoresis - immunoblotting - and imaging mammalian cell culture - propagation - cryopreservation - and staining lentiviral and adeno-associated vector construction - generation - and use in cell culture and rodent models proficiency in CRISPR/Cas9 gene targeting in mammalian cells mammalian cell isolation using flow cytometry or related technologies mouse and rat husbandry including weaning - ear tag & punch - breeding - and euthanasia mouse and rat genotyping involving genomic DNA preparation - PCR genotyping - and data entry experimental protocols involving rodent models including tissue sampling preparation and analysis of histological samples from rodent models computer software experience with Image J - Prism - Microsoft Office - Python - RStudio - SQL - AI models including ChatGPT general lab organization - maintenance - and function hazardous waste handling and disposal Work Schedule: Intermittent (Without Compensation)