Laboratory Manager

The Quake Laboratory is being established at ETH Zürich in 2026 by Stephen Quake, moving from Stanford University. The lab operates at the intersection of physics, engineering, and biology, developing new measurement and modelling approaches to advance understanding from individual cells and minute molecular material. Three major research programmes will run in parallel: reconstructing the regulatory architecture of E. coli, building large-scale single-cell atlases of human and model-organism tissues, and advancing liquid-biopsy approaches for disease detection and physiology monitoring. The lab will be a multidisciplinary environment of approximately 10 people, including molecular biologists, biochemists, computational biologists, machine-learning researchers, physicists, and engineers, with collaborations across ETH, EPFL, the University of Zürich, and internationally.

The Laboratory Manager will be the operational backbone of the group, responsible for the day-to-day functioning of a complex, multi-modal wet lab, serving as senior bench scientist, trainer, and adviser to the PI. This role is ideal for an experienced research scientist who enjoys working across multiple biological systems, building infrastructure, mentoring colleagues, and ensuring operational excellence.

• Lead the build-out and ongoing operation of the lab's wet-bench facilities at ETH, including equipment selection, installation, qualification, and maintenance contracts.
• Establish and maintain shared resources such as cell culture rooms, BSL-2 areas, sequencing prep zones, –80 °C and liquid-nitrogen storage, autoclaves, reagent stocks, and instrument calendars.
• Manage ordering, supplier relationships, inventory, and stockroom organisation; negotiate framework agreements as needed.
• Maintain and audit SOPs, sample-tracking systems, and electronic lab notebook practices.
• Serve as the lab's interface with ETH core facilities and external service providers.
• Run and oversee molecular cloning pipelines for E. coli, including plasmid and genome-integrated construct design, strain construction, and storage.
• Set up and maintain biochemical workflows for regulatory studies, including protein expression, purification, in vitro transcription, and quantitative biochemistry.
• Establish microbial growth and induction infrastructure, including plate readers, continuous-culture systems, and microfluidics interfaces.
• Train new lab members in microbiology, sterile technique, and E. coli genetics; troubleshoot cloning and expression projects.
• Run and supervise mammalian cell culture, including media preparation, line authentication, and biobanking.
• Establish workflows for tissue dissociation, single-cell and single-nucleus suspension preparation, FACS-based cell sorting, and quality assessment.
• Coordinate tissue-acquisition pipelines with clinical and academic partners, including biospecimen agreements, documentation, logistics, and ethics-approved sample handling.
• Operate and maintain low-input cfDNA and cfRNA extraction workflows.
• Implement and refine cfNA library-preparation protocols and contribute to method development for new assay modalities.
• Establish quality-management practices for clinical-grade samples.
• Serve as the lab's senior practitioner for sequencing workflows, including library QC, pooling, balancing, and instrument operation or vendor coordination.
• Establish QC dashboards and acceptance criteria across library types.
• Coordinate with computational team members on sample sheets, demultiplexing, primary QC, and timely return of sequencing data.
• Maintain relationships with sequencing providers for overflow and specialty platforms.
• Onboard new lab members and deliver hands-on training in core methods.
• Mentor junior research staff and students; lead technical lab meetings and troubleshooting clinics.
• Foster a rigorous, collaborative, and psychologically safe lab culture, reinforcing expectations around reproducibility, record-keeping, and intellectual honesty.
• Serve as the lab's biosafety officer and primary contact for ETH Safety, Security, Health & Environment; maintain documentation and registrations as applicable.
• Ensure compliance with Swiss regulations on human biological samples and personal data, including ethics submissions and amendments.
• Manage chemical inventory, waste streams, radiation safety, and animal-work documentation in coordination with ETH veterinary services.
• Lead emergency-preparedness procedures and serve as first responder for incidents.