Research Assistant - Pathogen

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Welcome to the Pathogen Project:

Within this ecosystem, the Pathogen Project exemplifies EIT’s dedication to ground-breaking science. It seeks to transform pathogen risk management, detection and response by leveraging Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS)-based metagenomic and pathogen-specific analytical tools. The goal is to power metagenomic devices using long-read sequencing technologies by building a comprehensive database of pathogen information to inform response. The database will comprise >400,00 paired high-quality long-read sequences with comprehensive antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. Enabled by Oracle Inc.’s cloud-computing scale and security, the Pathogen Project is advancing toward certified diagnostic tools for deployment in laboratories, hospitals, and public health organisations worldwide.

Your Role:

At EIT we are seeking an experienced and detailed orientated Research Assistant to join the Pathogen Program and support the generation of high-quality microbiology data and microbiology R&D.

We’re building a reference and innovation laboratory focused on large-scale biobanking and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of bacterial isolates, alongside sequencing-based characterisation. The goal is to generate high-quality datasets at scale to support  the development of metagenomic diagnostics and genome-based antimicrobial susceptibility prediction.

The laboratory is being developed as a highly automated environment, integrating robotics, data systems, and advanced instrumentation to enable scalable and reproducible workflows. Working under the supervision of senior microbiologists, you will work as part of a team towardsthe executionof a variety of protocols involving microbial culture, identification and biobanking, and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) primarily based on broth microdilution. While your core focus will be on protocol execution and laboratory operations within an automated laboratory system, you will also have the opportunity to contribute creatively to the design, development, and optimisation of workflows to enhance data generation and analytical depth.

This role operates in an objectives-driven, fast-paced environment, with a strong focus on delivery, data quality, and team outcomes.

This is a hands-on role, ideal for someone who enjoys working at the bench and is motivated to contribute to building efficient, scalable, and technology-driven laboratory systems towards the end-goal of reducing pathogen health burdens globally.

Key Responsibilities

Laboratory Testing, Design and Data Generation

• Perform AST of bacterial isolates compliant with established guidelines (EUCAST/CLSI).
• Contribute to the design and improvement of laboratory workflows, including assay setup, sample handling, and data generation processes.
• Prepare and handle microbial cultures under BSL-2 conditions, including plating, inoculation, and incubation ensuring excellent aseptic technique, biosafety, and quality control at all stages.
• Perform identification of microbial cultures using MALDI-TOF and/or culture-based methods.
• Perform biobanking of microbial cultures.
• Operate automated and semi-automated workflows for micro-broth dilution
• Ability to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams, contributing to shared project and team objectives.

Laboratory Operations, Quality and Automation

• Execute laboratory workflows with a strong focus on quality, consistency, and reproducibility.
• Maintain detailed records of experiments, QC results and equipment logs.
• Perform quality control checks, flag deviations and troubleshoot unexpected results.
• Ensure laboratory equipment, consumables, and workspaces are in good working order.
• Work with and support automated laboratory platforms, including setup, operation, and basic troubleshooting.
• Ensure compliance with biosafety and laboratory standards.
• Perform stock control and ordering.

Workflow Development, Automation and Collaboration

• Work closely with microbiologists, genomics scientists, and automation engineers to support and improve workflows.
• Contribute to the design and optimisation of high-throughput laboratory processes.
• Support the implementation and continuous improvement of workflows on robotic and automated systems.
• Participate in team discussions and contribute ideas to improve efficiency, robustness, and scalability.

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience

Essential skills

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Microbiology, Molecular Biology, or a related life science discipline.
• >2 years of hands-on experience in a wet-lab environment (healthcare, industry or academia).
• Strong basic microbiology techniques and skills (e.g. culturing, plating, aseptic technique).
• Strong attention to detail; ability to follow and improve protocols.
• Excellent organisational, communication, and record-keeping skills.
• Experience of performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing
• Experience of using MALDI-TOF systems for bacterial identification
• Experience working under BSL-2 conditions.

Desirable skills

• Exposure to clinical microbiology workflows.
• Experience of broth micro dilution antimicrobial susceptibility testing
• Familiarity with laboratory data systems (LIMS).
• Experience with sequencing workflows (DNA extraction, library prep) or interest in genomics.
• Exposure to laboratory automation platforms (e.g. liquid handlers such as Hamilton or Opentrons).

Benefits

Our Benefits:

• Travel allowance + Bonus
• Enhanced holiday pay
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme

Working Together – What It Involves:

• You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate).
• This is a full time role based on-site in Oxford