Research Assistant - 3D Bone Organoids (1 Year Contract)

About the role

NHG is looking for a motivated, detail-oriented Research Assistant to join its interdisciplinary research team at Woodlands Hospital. You will work hands-on on patient-derived 3D bone organoid models to advance osteoporosis research and personalised medicine, collaborating with clinicians, bioengineers, computational researchers and external partners, including overseas collaborators.

Key responsibilities

• Develop, optimise and standardise 3D bone organoid models from patient samples, using mammalian cell culture techniques such as isolation, expansion, differentiation and cryopreservation of human primary cells and mesenchymal stromal cells.
• Support 3D bioprinting workflows, hydrogel and scaffold preparation, and organoid culture under static and dynamic conditions.
• Integrate peripheral blood mononuclear cells to study immune-bone interactions, osteoclast activity, inflammation and bone remodelling, and run pharmacological response studies.
• Carry out molecular, biochemical, histological and imaging-based analyses to characterise results.
• Maintain laboratory equipment, bioreactors and imaging platforms, and ensure specimen processing follows approved protocols and biosafety requirements.
• Keep experimental records, manage sample inventories and reagent logs, and help document biological datasets for integration with clinical and computational data.
• Help prepare SOPs, ethics documents, reports, presentations and manuscripts, and coordinate experimental schedules across the team and with collaborators.

Required profile

• Degree in Biomedical Science, Biological Sciences, Bioengineering or a related discipline.
• Prior hands-on experience in mammalian cell culture is essential.
• Meticulous, organised, able to work independently and within a multidisciplinary team, with good communication skills and willingness to engage with collaborators across institutions.

Required skills

• Essential: mammalian cell culture.
• Advantageous: 3D cell culture or organoid systems, bioprinting, immunology assays, histology, microscopy or bioreactor operation.