Senior Program Officer - INSPIRE at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN)

The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) is a leading and reputable non-governmental organization addressing infectious and non-infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and cancer through the provision of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, capacity building, research, and care and support services.

The Impact of Non-B HIV-1 Subtype on second-line Protease Inhibitor Regimens in Africa (INSPIRE) project is one of the research projects being implemented by the Institute. INSPIRE seeks to identify factors that predict virological failure among patients with Protease Inhibitor (PI) containing regimens.

To execute this project, IHVN is seeking suitable and qualified candidates to fill in the position of:

Job Title: Senior Program Officer - INSPIRE

Location: Nigeria

Summary / Overview

• The Senior Program Officer (Drug Level Analyst),INSPIRE NIH R01 – 1R01AI147331-01, will take part in the research and routine analytical work in the virology section.
• The focus of the drug level analyst is to provide a quantitative measure of drugs and/or their metabolites for the purpose of pharmacokinetic, bioequivalence, metabolism and exposure-response (pharmacokinetic / pharmacodynamics) studies.
• S/he will develop, validate, and maintain state-of-the-art quantitative assays to support research and clinical care for researchers and use his/her expertise in pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, genetics, and genomics to help investigators develop scientific protocols and to help clinicians optimize drug therapy in patients.
• The person will be expected to work following Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) and safety guidelines.
• S/he will also do other duties as assigned by the Head of the Unit.

Essential Functions

• Develop and implement analytical assays to assess the compartmentalized pharmacokinetics of anti-infective agents in the prevention and/or management of HIV/AIDS.
• Carry out the quantification of small molecules using liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) analyses.
• Measure concentrations of the compound of interest in samples.
• Validate assays as per US Food and Drug Administration guidelines, Guidance for Industry: Bioanalytical Method Validation recommendations.
• Participate in population pharmacokinetic analysis of the data.
• Prepare budgets and supply orders.
• Adhere to / enforce good research and laboratory practice including Quality Assurance/Quality Control
• Provide monthly/regular updates of progress to both senior and junior staff
• Provide technical expertise in support of laboratory components for the study and other research studies as assigned by the Principal Investigator (PI).
• Participate in the execution of targets within project stipulated time lines in conjunction with the PI

Qualification / Skills

• Must hold a Ph.D. /MSc. in Chemistry with at least 3-5 years of experience.
• She/he should have worked in an active research laboratory especially in drug level analysis.
• Expert in the pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical stages of the total testing processes.

Application Closing Date
29th May, 2020.