Dr. Kevin Ward from the Department of Epidemiology is seeking a highly organized research assistant to help with tissue acquisition activities for a large prostate cancer study taking place in Georgia.  Attention to detail is critical and some prior lab experience would be helpful, although it is not required.  Dr. Ward leads the Georgia Cancer Registry (GCR).  The GCR is participating in the largest ongoing recruitment study in the U.S. for African American prostate cancer patients.  Approximately 3000 men are enrolled in the study to date in Georgia (recruitment is ongoing) and almost half of these men have authorized access to stored tissue from around the time of diagnosis.  Tissue retrieval is underway with over 600 specimens requested to date. 

The research assistant’s primary responsibilities would include:

•             working with study staff to receive, log and de-identify tissue blocks from outside laboratories every week

•             preparing required paperwork for the Winship Cancer Tissue & Pathology Shared Resource (CTPSR)

•             delivering de-identified blocks and pathology reports from RSPH to Winship CTPSR on a weekly basis

•             receiving sectioned slides from the Winship CTPSR as they are completed

•             conducting quality control on the sectioned slides received and preparing shipping logs for outside processing partner (John Hopkins University – JHU)

•             packaging slides and de-identified pathology reports for weekly shipments to JHU

•             retrieving the original blocks from Winship CTPSR and returning them to RSPH

•             removing the de-identification labels from the blocks and preparing shipments of blocks back to the providing laboratories.

This position requires on campus work, pays $15.00/hr, and can support 10-20 hours per week.  Work will be ongoing throughout the summer.  Please email your resume to kward [at] emory [dot] edu if interested.