Principal Scientist (Team Leader) – Antibody Discovery

The Companies mission is to develop impactful new medicines for patients by targeting activated fibroblast populations and their role in influencing immune effector cells in disease. Our founding investigators comprise leading experts in inflammatory disease, cancer, computational biology and fibroblast biology from the University of Oxford, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. We are progressing a pipeline of first-in-class therapeutics to interrupt fibroblast-mediated effects on immune cells in inflammatory disease and immuno-oncology.

The Company is supported by leading global investors SV Health Investors, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Forbion, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Northpond Ventures. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, UK.  In 2021, the Company was recognised on the Fierce 15 list of  innovative biotechnology companies.

This is an outstanding opportunity for an experienced Antibody Discovery or Protein Engineer to join an innovative, seed-stage biotech company. We are looking for someone who shares our excitement science, drives innovation, champions our culture and honours our commitment to patients.

We are looking for a Team Leader/Principal Scientist to lead our Antibody Discovery and Protein Science team. The candidate will have a deep passion for antibody discovery and protein engineering and a proven track record of leading the discovery and engineering of candidate therapeutic antibodies including Bispecific Antibodies and antibodies with different mechanisms of action. The candidate will have an in depth understanding of protein science, in vitro and in vivo antibody discovery platforms, lead isolation and lead optimisation along with protein engineering knowledge and expertise that has been applied to generation of de-risked clinical candidates for CMC. As Team leader you will be responsible for line management of a small internal team in addition to working with the Companies external partners and collaborators to access world leading antibody discovery platforms plus a range of other CROs relevant to all aspects of the antibody discovery process. The successful candidate will work closely with internal project leaders and matrixed project teams to enable selection of antibody development candidates to make a meaningful difference for patients suffering from autoimmune diseases and cancer. This is an opportunity for an innovative scientist to contribute to early-stage product identification and development in a seed stage company.

Key Responsibilities

• Providing leadership and day-to-day management of all antibody discovery and protein sciences activity across projects
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with a network of antibody discovery partners and CROs to ensure quality and timely delivery
• Strategic direction and scientific design and rigor of Antibody Discovery activities carried out internally and externally
• Line management and leadership of Antibody Discovery and Protein Sciences team including balancing of internal and external resources and capabilities
• Hands on contribution to project activities including managing resourcing, defining and managing the execution of work plans and managing delivery both in terms of timelines and quality/rigor for work packages
• Ensuring quality of internal and external data, that work is analysed, documented and recorded to a high standard and in line with policies
• Development and implementation of new technologies as required by the projects
• Actively contributing to a vibrant and innovative working environment where improvements and new ideas are adopted and freely shared among the teams
• Providing expert technical direction, challenge and problem solving in projects
• Writing reports and summaries, preparation of study reports and regulatory documents
• Providing scientific coaching and mentorship for less experienced scientists in the team, as well as other scientists in our matrixed environment
• Driving results and responding to changes in projects with urgency to meet tight timelines

Minimum Qualifications and Experience required

• A PhD in a relevant scientific discipline, strong scientific background in a field relevant to antibody discovery and proven track record of delivering candidate antibodies into CMC, preferably in biotech or pharma
• At least 6+ years’ experience in scientific and leadership roles preferably within biopharma companies
• In depth knowledge of state of the art protein engineering and Antibody Discovery technologies including bispecific antibodies
• Able to act independently to determine methods and procedures on new or special assignments. Able to supervise and direct the activities of others
• Experience of preparation of reports, summaries, and regulatory documents
• Experienced at managing complex external collaborations/partnerships and CROs, to successfully achieve project goals
• Desire to work in a fast-paced, quickly changing environment, showing agility/flexibility to meet deadlines and goals with a can do attitude
• Experience of training and mentoring of team members to maximize their potential and develop the capabilities of the team

In order to support the key aspects of Antibody Discovery and Protein Sciences, previous laboratory and technology experience of the below is desired:

• Good understanding of antibody expression, with a particular focus on the expression of bispecific antibodies supported by technical knowledge of the molecular biology required to generate antibody expression vectors.
• Expertise in antibody purification, with an emphasis on the purification of bispecifics using multi-step purification strategies such as Ion exchange and RP chromatography
• Antibody analytics, ranging from DSC, DSL, CE SDS, analytical MS and peptide mapping
• Experience with antibody kinetic analysis including Biacore and octet
• Understanding of bispecific formatting to aid the generation of bispecifics with simplified/streamlined CMC strategies.
• In depth knowledge on antibody developability assessment techniques, such as AC SINS, HIC, PSR and DSC for Tm
• Antibody lead development through affinity maturation, encompassing library design, high affinity selection and screening approaches.
• Antibody selection/screening via hybridoma, B-cell screening and phage display techniques post immunisations.
• Antigen production and QC via ELISA/Octet/functional assay assessment.
• Generation of antibody surrogates via murine and rabbit immunisation and screening strategies, encompassing humanisation and murinisation strategies.
• Understanding of cell line development and pre-CMC work up to support the transition of lead antibodies through pre-clinical stages

For further information, please get in touch ASAP.