Laboratory Assistant II Grade B
Clerical and Technical generic job description
Family: Research
Job Code: 604
Representative duties:
- Performs standard scientific/laboratory procedures. Records data and results
- Sets up, operates, and maintains laboratory equipment and apparatus
- Prepares chemical solutions and media
- Orders, stocks and distributes supplies
- Maintains work area and cleanliness of laboratory
- Washes and sterilizes glassware and equipment
- May assist in procedures using animals
- May compile data on scientific/laboratory procedures
- Performs additional functions incidental to laboratory activities
The job duties listed above are representative and characteristic of the duties required and the level of the work performed in the job title. The duties will vary from incumbent to incumbent in the job title.
Required knowledge:
- General knowledge, high school level; detailed but narrow knowledge in one or several work-related areas; general acquaintance with broader field of knowledge
- Limited acquaintance with University organizational policies and procedures
Required skills:
- Copies data from standard or easily understandable formats
- Uses a dictionary
- Files already labeled material using a straightforward alphabetical or chronological system
- Understands non-routine notes, written instructions, and general policy statements
- Writes short, informal notes, fills out simple forms
- Occasional use of more complex machines, such as word processors or personal computers
- Performs one or several simple laboratory or scientific procedures that require some training, but that can be reversed or duplicated inexpensively; records results as necessary
Office and administrative skills:
- Keyboards forms, labels, and other simple materials
- Enters and retrieves data from semi-finished source documents on a personal computer, requiring both some interpretation of the source document and a basic understanding of software parameters
- Schedules appointments in allotted times
- Refers callers and visitors to the appropriate individual
Experience, education and formal training:
Two years of related work experience and a high school level education, or an equivalent combination of experience and education.
Complexity and organization:
- Limited variety of job tasks requiring coordinating steps/procedures
- Occasionally coordinates or organizes the work of others
Interpersonal relations:
- Little or no involvement outside immediate unit
- Offers or obtains basic information or provides assistance on general matters
- Understands and conveys more complex messages and instructions, and takes action accordingly
Supervisory guidelines:
- Work is subject to general review on an occasional basis
- Supervisor and incumbent plan, assign and schedule work jointly
- Instruction provided only in new situations, methods and procedures that are not clearly related to existing tasks and duties
Independent judgment:
- Established procedures/policies govern most work situations
- Occasional exercise of independent judgment or initiative
- Problems solved by using established procedures
Leadership responsibility:
- Occasionally provides general orientation to routine procedures/policies
- Sometimes distributes and monitors work
Impact and consequence of error:
- Work affects only immediate work unit
- Errors are somewhat difficult to recognize and correct and only affect own work
Working conditions:
- Occasional possibility of safety risks
- Occasional conflicting demands, time pressure, deadlines or emergencies
- Regular sustained concentration
- Some physical effort or dexterity
Example 1
General purpose:
Provide general and specific research support for laboratory involved in the investigation of developmental neurobiology. Under supervision of faculty and higher-level staff, assist in the daily operations and laboratory procedures performed in the laboratory.
Essential duties of the position:
- Assist laboratory personnel involved in mouse experiments, particularly in compiling a list of different mice in mouse colony
- Assist in simple procedures with mice, i.e.: tail biopsies and associated record keeping
- Help with the ordering of supplies and services from internal and external sources
- Assist in the preparation of solutions needed for PCR and will occasionally help with PCR in the laboratory
- Responsible for cleaning and autoclaving glassware and keeping laboratory orderly
- Maintain balances, pH meters, and other equipment assuring all equipment is clean and in good working order
Education and training:
- Two years of related work experience and a high school level education; or an equivalent combination of experience and education
- Preferred: Experience working with transgenic mice
Skills and abilities:
- Ability to lift a minimum of 25 lbs. and transport animals on carts considerable distances on a regular basis
- Preferred: Ability to work with sledge microtome to cut thin brain slices
Example 2
General purpose:
Under the general supervision of the Principal Investigator, responsible for performing experiments involving tissue microarrays.
Essential duties of the position:
- Assist in standard experiments for tissue assays of cancer patient DNA and RNA and in situ hybridization
- Record and compile information related to research data
- Maintain work area and cleanliness of laboratory
- Order, stock and distribute supplies
- Perform additional responsibilities incidental to laboratory activities
Education and training:
- Two years of related work experience and a high school level education; or an equivalent combination of experience and education.
- Preferred: Knowledge of research methodology practices.
Skills and Abilities:
- Experience performing experiments with tissue specimens and using markers on tissue
- Preferred: Experience with recombinant techniques including molecular cloning as well as cell culture work and antibody related procedures