Scientist

Role Summary

As a Scientist within our Cell Biology group, you will have a direct impact on our drug pipeline as a lab-based contributor and functional area lead within the project setting. Your work as a member of our experienced cross-functional team will drive discovery, characterization, and optimization of novel cell-based therapies.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to one or more pipeline programs, working collaboratively with cross-functional teams to ensure the timely generation and dissemination of critical program data to enable data-driven decisions.
• Design and execute experiments independently with minimal supervision, as well as effectively plan and organize work activities and prioritize task completion.
• Serve as a functional area lead within a project setting; helping to derive timelines, plan, and execute to help achieve project goals.
• Stay up to date with relevant technical and intellectual scientific expertise in tumor biology and cancer modelling, particularly as it relates to CAR-T cell biology or other cell-based therapies.

Qualifications

• Required: Master’s degree with 4-6+ years of research experience within the pharmaceutical industry or a PhD in a relevant field with 0-2 years of industry experience.
• Preferred: Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cells or alternative cell-based cancer therapeutics.
• Preferred: Other immuno-modulatory drug modalities (T-cell engagers or multi-specific proteins).
• Preferred: Autoimmune diseases research (emerging therapies, pathogenic mechanisms, immune tolerance & reset, signaling pathways).
• Preferred: Expertise in manipulating immune cells, particularly T cells, including purification, transfection/transduction, activation and expansion, and cryopreservation.
• Preferred: Familiarity with markers of memory, exhaustion, and activation for phenotyping of CAR-T cells by flow cytometry.
• Preferred: Expertise in immune cell assays including multiparameter flow cytometry, in vitro cell-based assays (cytotoxicity, proliferation, degranulation), live cell analysis (IncuCyte), cytokine measurement (ELISA or Lumit), and multiplex assays; experience on BD instruments or Cytek Aurora for flow cytometry.
• Preferred: Expertise in pseudotyped lentivirus generation by transient transfection.
• Preferred: Expertise in basic cell line manipulation (transient transfection, CRISPR knockout, antigen overexpression, single-cell cloning).
• Preferred: Expertise in basic molecular biology techniques (genomic DNA extraction and qPCR for vector copy number measurement).
• Preferred: Familiarity with pre-clinical assessment methods for efficacy, specificity, and safety of CAR-T cells or other immuno-oncology agents.
• Preferred: Familiarity with in vivo models of human cancer (cell line derived xenografts or patient-derived xenografts).
• Preferred: Effective and timely communication of results and relevant scientific literature; ability to prepare technical reports, summaries, and protocols.
• Preferred: Proficiency in GraphPad Prism, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, SnapGene, and FlowJo for data analysis and documentation.
• Preferred: Commitment to ethical scientific investigations and rigorous experimental methods.
• Preferred: Ability and desire to multitask in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment; strong collaborative and interpersonal skills; strong written and oral communication.

Skills

• Strong experimental design and data interpretation skills
• Excellent written and oral communication
• Collaborative, team-oriented mindset with ability to work in cross-functional settings
• Proficiency with data analysis software and lab automation concepts