Perform complex technical work involving molecular analysis of human biological material in a variety of specialized laboratories. Job duties will depend upon the specialty laboratory and may be composed of a combination of the following duties and responsibilities related to the specialization. Steps are extensive and complex requiring manual manipulation, close monitoring and control, extensive calculations, plus careful and accurate work. Training periods are long and will require reading literature related to the specialty to maintain current knowledge of these dynamic, rapidly evolving, fields.

Duties and Responsibilities of this Level

LEVEL II PERSONNEL IN ALL LABORATORIES:

Perform complex technical work involved in preparing human biological material for specialized microscopic, cellular, serologic, molecular, genetic, and image or flow cytometric analysis. This may include any of the following operations, singly or in combination on submitted fluieds (including blood or body fluids), cytological specimens, or fixed and unfixed tissues: freeze, fix, dehydrate, embed, section, centrifuge, culture, harvest, cytospin, immunohistochemical stain, immunofluorescent stain, hybridization of cytologic sections or suspensions and/or isolation of lymphocyte subpopulations and/or genomic DNA.

Perform histocompatibility, cytogenetic, histologic, cytometric, immunohistochemical, immunofluorescent, serological, cellular, molecular, and/or cytologic procedures related to specialized microscopic, molecular, genetic, cellular, serological, electrophoretic, or cytometric analysis including assessing the quality of the sample for analysis.

Maintain files of any/all of the following as appropriate: slides, frozen specimens, blocks, cell preparations, micrographs, typing and antibody screening trays, DNA preparations, electrophoresis gel photos, results, and reports. Maintain neat and clean laboratory workspace.

Prepare stock solutions and reagents following standard operating procedures and quality control procedures. Record quality control of reagent preparation. Recognize and resolve problems or report to upper level personnel.

Perform routine equipment maintenance according to standard operating procedures. Record temperatures and equipment maintenance in accordance with internal and external regulatory agencies. Recognize instrument malfunctions and report to upper level personnel.

Assist in inventory maintenance by monitoring inventory and notifying upper level personnel of low inventory.

Maintain logbook or database; accession samples, order tests, and bill cases. Interact with physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

Perform proficiency testing to maintain compliance with internal and external regulatory agencies.

Molecular Diagnostics and Histocompatibility Laboratories: Extract nucleic acids, set up PCR and digestion, prepare and run electrophoretic gels, transfer and hybridize including the preparation of oligonucleotide probes.

Cytogenetics and Image Cytometry Laboratories: Perform fluorescence in situ hybridization utilizing multi-color probes and microscopic analysis using specialized microscopic equipment and software.

Perform cytometric or karyotypic analysis of stained cytologic sections or suspensions using specialized microscopic and/or cytometric equipment.

Immunopathology and Flow Cytometry Laboratories: Perform direct immunofluorescent staining of cell suspensions or frozen sections for the purpose of diagnosing malignant diseases as in lymphoma and leukemia immunophenotyping.

Flow Cytometry Laboratory: Perform direct immunofluorescent staining of lymphocytes for the purpose of monitoring immune compromised patients by flow cytometric analysis. Histocompatibility, Molecular Diagnostics, and Immunopathology Laboratories:

Perform histocompatibility testing using serological, cellular, molecular, electrophoretic, and flow cytometric methodologies, including assessing the quality of the sample for analysis.

Perform transplant donor and recipient, pre- and post-transplantation analysis to determine eligibility for transplantation or to determine acceptance or rejection of transplantation by any of the following methods: HLA typing, engraftment-PCR analysis, myeloid/lymphoid fractionation, immunofluorescence staining, or flow cytometric analysis.

Electron Microscopy Laboratory: Perform specialized microscopic analysis of subcellular components and identify viral particles in samples prepared using histologic or cytologic procedures designed for electron microscopy.

Required Qualifications at this Level

Education: BS degree in Biological Science or related field is required for the Histocompatibility, Flow Cytometry, Cytogenetics, and Molecular Diagnostics Laboratories.

A BS degree in Biological Science or related field is preferred for the Immunopathology, Cytogenetics, and Image Cytometry Laboratories. Those people without BS degrees who are working at this level in Immunopathology, Cytogenetics, Electron Microscopy, or Image Cytometry as of December 31, 2004 will be grandfathered.