Principal Scientist, Applied Genomics

Role Summary

The Principal Scientist, Applied Genomics at Novartis leads cellular/molecular biology and genomic screening efforts to support technology development and early drug discovery. The role develops tools, reagents, and enabling technologies, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to power early drug discovery.

Responsibilities

• Strong proficiencies in cell culture and functional genomics, including design and implementation of genomic screens using CRISPR, RNAi, and cDNA.
• Assay development, evaluating new technologies, and understanding various assay methods and principles.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and execute automated workflows for screening, advising on perturbagen choice and orthogonal/secondary validation designs.
• Independently design and conduct experiments, analyze data, and communicate findings to project teams.
• Design and create custom molecular biology solutions to assist project teams, with extensive experience in CRISPR-based techniques.

Qualifications

• Required: PhD with 5+ years, or BS/MS with 10-15+ years in biology (or relevant field) and applicable industry experience.
• Hands-on experience in genomic screening and automation in a research or industrial setting.
• Proficient with mammalian cell culture and physiologically relevant in vitro disease models.
• Familiarity with genomics perturbagens (siRNA, CRISPR, cDNA) and proper delivery and QC.
• Strong organizational and project management skills; ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment; strong problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities in automated assay development.

Desirable Skills

• Ability to lead independent research to develop enabling technologies for drug discovery.
• Optimize and implement biochemical and phenotypic assays to characterize protein-protein interactions.
• Protein expression, vector design/optimization, and lab automation experience.
• Viral-mediated gene transfer, engineering, and production experience.
• Experience with routine cell-based assays such as luminescence, FRET, Western Blots, and Flow Cytometry.