Scientist I-Scientist II, Immunology

Scope of role

This is an outstanding opportunity for a proactive and enthusiastic scientist with

experience to join our Immunology team in an innovative biotech to work closely

with cross-functional teams both internally and externally. We are looking for a highly collaborative immunologist with a passion and motivation for science who ideally has a background and special focus in immune regulation in the context of

autoimmunity and/or inflammation with experience in assay development in vitro and share our vision to bring new therapies to patients in need.

The successful candidate will work closely with project leads within the R&D team to define and implement the immunoassay cascade that model the target biology and that are suitable for profiling and assessing antibodies for activity and mechanism of action and for addressing key questions of target validation and translation.

This is a hands-on lab based role requiring design and set up of immune cell biology

assays and models to support our exciting projects.

The Position

• You will utilise your immunological expertise and track-record in immunology to drive forward the science of our early-stage projects.

• Design, set up and run in vitro assays supporting immunology validation, antibody profiling/mechanism of action for our drug discovery programmes.

• Build a strong understanding of the target biology and assays used in the literature and implement suitable assays as part of the project team.

• Work collaboratively with other discovery teams within the company, for example antibody discovery and assay teams as well as project leaders and managers to advance the projects.

• Presentation of work at internal meetings.

• Independently generate, analyse and record high quality data relating to our projects.

• Contribute to project presentations and preparation of materials for meetings and reviews.

• Document experimental work in electronic lab notebook (ELN) and a laboratory information management system (LIMS) to timelines and guidelines.

• Work to a high standard and in accordance with our Health and Safety and other policies and procedures.

• Deliver project goals under strict deadlines in a fast-moving and busy workplace.

• Contribute to a collaborative, data driven, work environment with our core values of trust, togetherness and purpose driving innovation and efficiency within the team.

Minimum Qualifications and Experience:

Essential:

• A PhD in immunology or MSc/MRes plus 3+ years of experience, ideally within industry/biotech/drug discovery.

• Hands on experience working with cell culture and aseptic technique including primary and immortalized cells.

• Handling of regulated fresh and biobank material including human blood processing, PBMC isolation and enrichment/purification of primary immune cell subset etc.

• Hands-on immunology experience including working with immune related assays (T cell, B cell and myeloid cells such as monocyte, dendritic cell and macrophage).

• Hands on experience with immune cell based functional assays like ELISA/MSD, conventional/spectral flow cytometry, ELISpot/FluoroSpot, proliferation/suppression, and cell sorting etc.

• Excellent understanding of assay optimisation, validation and troubleshooting to provide robust readouts for measuring target immunology in vitro.

• Superb skills in attention to details, planning, time management and organisation.

• Experience of quality control and solving technical problems in assay development to achieve key project objectives and adhere to timelines.

• Ability to read, understand and act on published scientific information and translate this into experiments to support our projects.

• Adaptability to changing business needs and learning new techniques.

• Excellent communication skills, including report writing and verbal presentations of findings in English.

• Passionate, self-driven, dedicated, inclusive, open-minded, collaborative and forward-thinking.

• Ability to work independently, yet co-operatively with others in a dynamic fast paced environment; genuine desire to be a part of a team and contribute to organizational and team goals.

Strongly desired (but not essential):

• Understanding of basic concepts in antibody discovery and candidate screening in R&D.

• Develop, validate and implement mono and coculture screening assays in 2D systems using primary cells and immortal cell lines.

• Familiarity with biochemical assays like reporter assays.

• Experience in independent panel design, compensation and data analysis using SSM on FlowJo software for multi-color surface, intracellular and intranuclear FACS staining.

• Experience in cellular immunophenotyping and cytokine profiling.

• Hands-on lab-based experience in Incucyte live cell analysis, confocal microscopy and FACS sorting.

• Practical training in immunocytochemistry / immunofluorescence tissue staining.

• Experience in non-immune cells and interaction between immune cells and non-immune cells in in vitro experimental settings.

• Knowledge of immune cell activation and modulation in human and mice is preferred.