Animal Care Technician at Astellas in Westborough, Massachusetts

Job Description:

Animal Care Technician

Do you want to be part of an inclusive team that works to develop innovative therapies for patients? Every day, we are driven to develop and deliver innovative and effective new medicines to patients and physicians. If you want to be part of this exciting work, you belong at Astellas!

Astellas Pharma Inc. is a pharmaceutical company conducting business in more than 70 countries around the world. We are committed to turning innovative science into medical solutions that bring value and hope to patients and their families. Keeping our focus on addressing unmet medical needs and conducting our business with ethics and integrity enables us to improve the health of people throughout the world. For more information on Astellas, please visit our website at www.astellas.com.

Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AIRM) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astellas Pharma Inc and focused on the development and commercialization of stem cell and regenerative medicine therapies. Astellas is an R&D-driven global pharmaceutical company whose philosophy is to contribute to the improvement of people's heath around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products.

AIRM has a world-class R&D team, and is pursuing a diverse range of disease indications, ranging from macular degeneration (currently in clinical trials) and other ocular indications to vascular and autoimmune disease. AIRM's intellectual property portfolio includes pluripotent stem cell platforms -- both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells as well as other cell-based therapy research programs. AIRM is headquartered in Massachusetts.

Astellas is announcing a Animal Care Technician opportunity at their Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AIRM) site in Westborough, MA.

Purpose:

The Animal Care Technician will be responsible for performing operational, administrative, and technical tasks to provide comprehensive care of Rodent species, including daily health observations, cage change, animal health care, study support, breeding colony support, cage wash, supplies procurement and receipt, and vivarium sanitization as well. Must be able to lift 50 lbs. and move heavy objects and be able to work from a standing position for prolonged time periods and perform repetitive motion tasks. This role is scheduled for Monday - Friday (days), but must be available to support weekend, work or a split shift (Tuesday- Saturday or Sunday- Thursday), holiday, emergency, and after-hour operational responsibilities as needed. Other duties as assigned and required.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

• Perform Rodent husbandry duties such as daily animal health check, cage change, room parameters (temperature, humidity, etc.) check and waste disposal.


• Apply basic veterinary care and treatment of rodents as needed and per the instructions of the attending veterinarian and/or the vivarium manager


• Perform routine maintenance and sanitization of rooms and associated equipment within the vivarium.


• Keep work areas stocked with supplies as needed for operation and study work.


• Maintain housing, procedure and washroom records: e.g., room logs, sanitization records, census and inventory records, etc.


• Receive and house rodent orders.


• Conduct weekly census of cages and supplies inventory


• Conduct washroom tasks e.g. washing and sanitization of cages, enrichment, storage containers.


• Assist with administrative tasks e.g. printing out cage cards, logs, census sheet, signs, forms, etc.


• Assist with animal and supplies procurement.


• Provide support to rodent breeding colonies e.g. breeding cages setup, litters weaning, animal Identification and sample collection for genotyping.


• Perform injections (IP/PO/SC/IM/IV) and sample collections (blood, tissue collection and necropsy) for both mice and rats as needed.


• Perform imaging procedures (IVIS/OCT) as needed.


• Assist with training of the research staff on basic animal handling procedures, Microisolator procedures, rodent injections (IV/IP/SC, etc.) and sample collections (blood samples and tissue collection) as well.


• Participate in the draft and review of operational SOPs.


• Perform other duties as may be required.

Quantitative Dimensions:

• Direct impact to Facilities, Research, and Technical Operations operating budgets


• Direct impact to costs of contracts through strategic negotiations


• Direct impact to Facilities, Research and Technical Operations objectives

Organizational Context:

• Reports to the Vivarium Sr. Manager at AIRM


• Partners with research groups to provide an optimum care of the research animals and quality support of the in-vivo research projects