Join the CDCN’s leadership team and become part of our dedicated and talented group of staff and volunteers
Job Opportunities
Research Specialist
Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL), University of Pennsylvania
High-Level Overview
The Research Specialist will to help facilitate Castleman disease and cytokine storm-related research projects, performing conceptual and wet-lab research with opportunities to work on data-driven projects. Under the Senior Research Investigator of the CSTL, the Research Specialist B will be tasked with culturing human primary cells, performing in vitro stimulation experiments, immunohistochemistry/immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry, and will work with large-scale clinical research data. In addition, the Research Specialist B will assist the Senior Research Investigator with research projects that involve cutting-edge genomics’ technologies. The position offers opportunities for professional growth and scientific experiences on a collaborative and hardworking team. The individual will be expected to participate in lab meetings, discussions, and assist with experiments of other lab members. The applicant must be well organized and is expected to maintain a lab notebook. Additional responsibilities will include organizing/ordering materials and reagents for the lab, dealing with vendors, and sharing lab maintenance duties with other lab members.
Responsibilities:
- Prepare experimental plans and perform laboratory research experiments to generate data that can lead to biological insights. Assays may include high-dimensional flow cytometry, tissue-based assays, and other studies. This duty includes troubleshooting projects both independently and as part of a team within specified timelines.
- Support other laboratory personnel, graduate students, fellows, and scientific collaborators with sample isolation, processing, extractions, and experimentation.
- Perform computer-based analyses of immunohistochemistry experimental data
- Follow all lab processes and protocols and track all data systematically in a lab notebook.
- Perform additional duties as assigned
***This position is contingent upon funding***
Requirements:
- Qualified candidates will have expertise in research planning, in vitro and in vivo experiments, and a background in biology with a general interest in immunology and inflammatory disorders. Joining the CSTL offers scientific professionals the unique opportunity of seeing their research go from bench to bedside and making discoveries that could one day lead to cures for deadly conditions such as COVID-19 and Castleman disease.
- BA/BS in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry/Microbiology/Immunology or related field and 1 to 3 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience required.
- Working knowledge of essential laboratory techniques and methods.
- Good written and verbal communication skills.
- Excellent organizational abilities
- Experience with immunology or hematology research preferred
Learn more about this opportunity here.
Data Scientist
Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL), University of Pennsylvania
High-Level Overview
The Data Scientist will be tasked with conceptualizing and developing analytical plans, supporting database development, performing analyses of data, interpreting results, and collaborating with government, industry, philanthropic, and academic partners for the CORONA (COVID19 Registry of Off-label & New Agents) Project. This position offers the opportunity to interface broadly with internal and external stakeholders from around the world to assure rapid progression of the science towards medical breakthroughs that help patients. Beyond COVID-19, there are exciting opportunities to perform analyses to elucidate understanding of other cytokine storm disorders with major unmet medical need as well as the thousands of diseases that currently have no treatments. The CSTL combines ‘omic analyses of patient biospecimens, hypothesis-driven basic science research, and clinical data analyses to discover and pursue novel therapeutic approaches for cytokine storm disorders through clinical trials and adoption in clinical practice. A talented data scientist is needed to perform these multi-omic analyses. We are additionally pursuing broad efforts to identify potential drugs to be repurposed for any untreated disease.
Responsibilities:
- Conceptualize and develop analytical plans, support database development, and perform analyses to accelerate the identification of effective treatments for COVID-19, cytokine storm disorders, and other diseases.
- Collaborate with government, industry, philanthropic, and academic partners.
- Recruit, train, manage, supervise, and mentor graduate students, fellows, and scientific collaborators. This duty includes troubleshooting projects both independently and as part of a team within specified timelines.
- Work closely with CSTL Director, Dr. David Fajgenbaum, and the remaining members of the CSTL Leadership Team to support long term planning of the database and analytic infrastructure.
- Perform analyses on multi-omic, clinical, and real-world datasets to discover and pursue novel therapeutic approaches for cytokine storms and other disorders.
- Perform additional duties as assigned.
***This position is contingent upon funding***
Requirements:
- MS + 5-7 years of a combination of relevant academic and work experience or equivalent combination of education and experience (e.g., PhD + 3-5 years) in bioinformatics/computational biology.
- Qualified candidates will have expertise in R and other coding languages and experience with medical informatics.
- Strong experience with database development and computational analyses required.
- Familiarity with drug repurposing, NGS analyses, bioinformatics/computational biology, virology, and immunology is a plus.
- Experience analyzing real-world and clinical trial data strongly preferred.
- Solid statistical background strongly preferred.
- Experience performing enrichment and/or pathway analyses with Ingenuity, GSEA, Reactome, KEGG, or other similar databases a plus, but not required.
Learn more about this opportunity here.
Clinical Research Coordinator
Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL), University of Pennsylvania
High-Level Overview
The Clinical Research Coordinator will work as part of an integrated, dynamic, and fast-moving team in the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL) that is focused on improving understanding and treatment of Castleman disease, a rare and deadly inflammatory disease. To achieve this goal, the CSTL is conducting an international patient registry / natural history study (ACCELERATE), expanding its sample biobank (Castlebank), and conducting a clinical trial (RAPID), and we are recruiting an individual who is interested in gaining exposure to the medical field through research project coordination. The Clinical Research Coordinator will be responsible for patient recruitment into ACCELERATE, Castlebank, and RAPID, tracking sample acquisition and managing sample logistics, coordinating data, maintaining and tracking large numbers of samples in multiple locations, and for use in multiple studies, and preparing IRB protocol modifications and submissions.
Responsibilities:
- Tracking Castlebank sample acquisition and managing sample logistics, maintaining and tracking large numbers of samples in multiple locations and for use in multiple studies
- Develop recruitment strategies. Track recruitment efforts into ACCELERATE, Castlebank, RAPID, and other protocols.
- Preparing IRB protocol modifications and submissions.
- Review multiple different types (clinical, laboratory, radiology, pathology, etc.) of patient medical records to confirm inclusion criteria for various studies
- Perform additional duties as assigned.
***This position is contingent upon funding***
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree with 2-3 years of related experience in research and clinical study methodologies or equivalent combination of education and experience is required
- Strong computer skills and experience including database management, MS Excel, and PowerPoint required. Experience creating and modifying relational databases is a plus.
- Knowledge of medical terminology and disease processes, and familiarity with Castleman disease and/or oncology clinical information and research is desirable.
- A high level of attention to detail, organizational skills, and commitment to accuracy is required. Interest in performing repetitive data entry.
- Possess good data review methodologies that ensure accurate and precise data monitoring.
- Comfort in an “iterative environment” in which periodic rework is inevitable.
- Strong oral and written communication skills. Strong organizational and time management skills. Strong work ethic.
- Ability to work as part of a team, as well as independently.
- Customer service or experience working with external stakeholders helpful.
Learn more about this opportunity here.
Biomedical Leadership Fellow @ University of Pennsylvania
Sponsored by HealthX and the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN)
The CDCN is looking for an entrepreneurial medical student to take a year-out between MS3 and MS4 to serve as the next Biomedical Leadership Fellow (BLF) to help support the CDCN’s mission of translating promising research for Castleman disease and other cytokine storm disorders like COVID-19 into life-saving therapeutics and to develop their business, leadership, and biomedical skills. The Fellowship winner will work directly with Penn Med Assistant Professor, Director of the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL), and alum, Dr. David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, on all aspects of their leadership, project management, and translational research work. Like the previous 5 Fellows who have made a transformative impact through this program, this year’s Fellow will work with expert researchers and physicians around the world and in the CSTL, FDA, NIH, pharmaceutical companies, tech companies like Google, foundations like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Castleman disease patients, and volunteers who all share a common goal of better understanding and curing Castleman disease and other cytokine storm disorders. The BLF will likely publish one or more papers that help to uncover insights into Castleman disease, immunology, and oncology as well as investigate ways to improve rare disease/biomedical research on a systems-level. The skills gained from this fellowship are highly transferable to any career choice or field of specialty.
- Total stipend for one year: $32,000
- Start date: Flexible—Start date anytime between January 2022-September 2022
- Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until September 2022; early applications strongly preferred
- Learn more about the CDCN
- Learn more about the Biomedical Leadership Fellowship
- Apply here; please make sure to review the information here before applying
Volunteer Opportunities
CDCN’s Drug Repurposing (ROADMAP) Project Seeking Volunteers
About the Project
The CDCN has partnered with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to launch The Repurposing Of All Drugs, Mapping All Paths (ROADMAP) project. This initiative proposes to fill to gaps within the current system of identifying, using, and seeking FDA-approval for off-label drugs for rare disease patients. We will leverage our experience in drug repurposing and learn from other rare disease stakeholders to create a roadmap for this complex process. This will be accomplished through document analysis, surveys, and interviews grounded in a participatory design approach. Ultimately, this project aims to not only answer some fundamental questions about the experience of drug repurposing for various stakeholders, but to also design a solution to some of the challenges rare disease organizations are facing through the creation of an interactive tool.
Volunteer Duties
We are looking for individuals who are interested in helping with the project for ~5-10 hours per week in a variety of ways, depending on experience, interest and availability:
Data Collection
- Gathering lists of rare disease organizations from various sources
- Extracting information from rare disease organizations’ websites
- Annotating and analyzing documents and resources
- Looking up drug approval labels to identify instances of drug repurposing
Communications
- Support via setting up interviews, sending pre-emails/thank you’s, and gaining consent
- Interview transcription and transcript clean up
- Social media posts and graphics creation
- Project promotion and outreach
- Ongoing design input for final product rapid prototyping
Literature Review & Writing
- Literature review of published research
- Report and research paper writing
Please reach out to project lead Ania Korsunska at ania@castlemannetwork.org to express your interest!
More about this project:
There is a dire need for more treatments of rare diseases. There are ∼7000 rare diseases affecting 30M individuals in the US alone, and 95% of these rare diseases do not have a single FDA-approved treatment. Since the incentives for new drug development are limited, drug repurposing provides a faster and cheaper way of identifying effective treatments for rare diseases. Still, many challenges exist in the drug repurposing space: a lack of a clear roadmap of how various stakeholders (patient advocacy organizations, researchers, physicians, government, pharma, etc.) should go about pursuing drug repurposing and a lack of support (data, finances, resources, guidelines, etc.) during the drug repurposing process.
The CDCN is comprised of physicians, researchers, patients, loved ones, and medical students. Our organization would not be successful without the hard work and dedication from so many people who volunteer their time to help us take down this disease. If you are passionate about Castleman disease and want to help us advance our life-saving research by joining our team, please fill out the survey.