Staff Research Associate - Pediatric CHAMP Program

The overall goal of the position is to support the developing research enterprises of the Child Health Advanced Molecular Phenotyping (CHAMP) Program, which is designed to help investigators better understand childhood disease by making high-quality human biological samples and molecular data more accessible across UCSF.

Many serious pediatric illnesses remain difficult to explain using traditional clinical information alone. CHAMP addresses this gap by supporting the careful collection, processing, preservation, and study of biological samples from children across a wide range of diseases and clinical settings. The goal is to make it easier for researchers to connect what is happening in a child's body at the molecular and cellular level with the clinical course of illness.

CHAMP is built around two complementary goals. The first is to create a coordinated infrastructure for collecting biofluids and tissues from willing participants, especially children with severe, rare, or poorly understood diseases. Whenever possible, samples are obtained from the sites most relevant to disease and are processed using protocols designed to preserve their value for both current and future technologies.

The second goal is to pair these samples with advanced molecular profiling platforms that can generate detailed information about immune responses, gene expression, cellular states, antibodies, pathogens, and other features of disease biology. These data can then be used by investigators across UCSF to generate new hypotheses, identify disease mechanisms, and ultimately improve diagnosis and treatment for children.

CHAMP operates under IRB-approved protocols that allow collection of human biofluids and tissues, including biopsy and post-mortem specimens, across organ systems and age groups. The program has developed workflows for rapid processing, cryopreservation, and live cell preservation so that valuable samples can be studied with the best available technologies.

To accomplish these goals, CHAMP is primarily based in the Bodansky Lab but works closely and collaboratively with many additional laboratories across the UCSF ecosystem, and in particular the DeRisi Lab, Anderson Lab, Wilson Lab, and Arnold Labs, and applies state of the art technologies to unique patient cohorts towards transformative translational discovery.

The Staff Research Associate will be involved in the laboratory to support these goals. The primary role will be to process the biological samples obtained and to integrate with the team to optimally store and track them for downstream analysis and scientific inquiry. Duties will include a broad range of cell culture, human sample processing, biochemical, molecular, and functional genomic techniques, as well as learning to apply new technologies currently being developed