Principal Scientist, Immunobiology
Who We Are:
EvolveImmune Therapeutics is a next-generation immunotherapy company based in Branford and Farmington, CT. EvolveImmune is harnessing its ‘Immunology First’ approach to create first-in-category cancer medicines which aim to transform the lives of patients by delivering superior, long-term outcomes compared to current anti-cancer therapies. The EvolveImmune team has established a first-in-class and highly differentiated tumor-targeted T cell costimulation platform designed to re-invigorate adaptive immune responses in solid tumors. In addition, building upon research that originated from the Sidi Chen Laboratory at Yale University, EvolveImmune is leveraging a novel in vivo CRISPR-based target discovery platform to develop a broad portfolio of first-in-class therapeutics for unmet needs in oncology and immune diseases.
The Role:
We are seeking a talented, entrepreneurial immunologist to lead the design and implementation of functional in vitro human assay systems, to drive the selection of differentiated candidate molecules which prevent the generation of T cell dysfunction or rejuvenate T cell exhaustion. Experience in the validation and application of tumor killing, cytokine production, immunophenotyping and T cell exhaustion assays is required. This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated scientist who is eager to unravel cutting-edge immunobiology, to identify and position novel immunotherapies in the cancer immunology treatment landscape. Close collaboration and matrix working with members of the immunobiology, biotherapeutics and translational science teams are expected. Evidence for a track record of scientific and project achievements in biopharma is required. Strong verbal and written communication skills are expected.
For more information about EvolveImmune Therapeutics, please visit https://www.evolveimmune.com/.
Responsibilities
- Conceive, design and execute human T cell-based immunoassays to evaluate EVOLVE lead and candidate molecule performance, including tumor killing assays, cytokine production, FACS-based and T cell exhaustion assessments
- Work with patient-derived tumor biosamples to assess T cell activation, proliferation and effector function to support clinical positioning opportunities
- Provide scientific input to optimize project progression and focus on differentiation
- Partner with Immunobiology, Biotherapeutics and Translational Science teams to ensure proactive sharing of scientific know-how across the organization
- Deliver clear, concise presentations at portfolio and project meetings which describe hypotheses, experimental results, key considerations and next steps, to enable organizational alignment
- Maintain records of experiments in electronic notebooks, analyze data and prepare presentation ready graphs
- Ensure compliance with all health and safety protocols
Qualifications:
- PhD in immunology or a related field with 5+ years of postdoctoral or industry experience.
- Extensive experience in cellular immunology, preferably with translational immunology expertise setting. Ideally including experience in immunotherapy or cell therapy biology/pharmacology and technical experience in assaying immune cells in vitro and ex vivo.
- Capable of clarifying problems and working in collaboration with team members to identify solutions
- Proficiency in assays assessing immune cell function in vitro, such as TCR stimulation assays, tumor cytotoxicity assays. Experience with assay systems relevant to other immune cell types is a plus.
- Expertise in multi-color flow cytometry and with multiplex ELISA systems
- Expertise in use of data analysis software such as Flowjo, Excel and Prism as well as knowledge of statistical methods and curve fitting.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
EvolveImmune will provide a competitive compensation package based on the level of the experience of the candidate.
EvolveImmune Therapeutics, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Principals only.
Qualified applicants should apply using this link.
Director of Immunobiology
Who We Are:
EvolveImmune Therapeutics is a next-generation immunotherapy platform company based in the Yale/New Haven biotechnology ecosystem with laboratories in Branford and Farmington, CT. EvolveImmune is harnessing its ‘Immunology First’ approach to create first-in-category cancer medicines which aim to transform the lives of patients by delivering superior, long-term outcomes compared to current anti-cancer therapies. The EvolveImmune team has established a first-in-class and highly differentiated tumor-targeted T cell costimulation platform designed to re-invigorate adaptive immune responses in solid tumors. In addition, building upon research that originated from the Sidi Chen Laboratory at Yale University, EvolveImmune is leveraging a novel in vivo CRISPR-based target discovery platform to develop a broad portfolio of first-in-class therapeutics for unmet needs in oncology and immune diseases. The EvolveImmune team has 16,000+ square feet of custom-built lab and office space in Branford, CT to support biological development and clinical translational of programs advancing to the clinic.
For more information about EvolveImmune Therapeutics, please visit https://evolveimmune.com/.
The Role:
The company is seeking an entrepreneurial immunology-focused leader as Director of Immunobiology to lead the development and implementation of functional in vitro human assay systems, to drive successful candidate selection for first-in-class portfolio projects. A strong emphasis on tumor killing, cytokine production and T cell exhaustion assays as well as on multiparameter flow cytometry is expected. The successful candidate will also lead CRISPR-Cas9 screening in primary human cells and the validation of targets with the highest potential to sustain effector T cell responses. Close interactions with a team of scientists to guide the design and execution of these studies is expected. The candidate will also interface closely with the antibody discovery and protein engineering teams to drive lead optimization efforts. Collaboration with our network of academic partners is a key aspect of this role, including managing selected external research partnerships. Strong verbal and written communication skills, with evidence of a track record of scientific and project achievements in biopharma, are required.
We are looking for a candidate who enjoys working in a team and can leverage the growth opportunities that a matrixed environment provides. This is an exceptional opportunity for someone who is excited about drug discovery and is driven to translate these discoveries to novel therapeutics.
Major Responsibilities:
- Working closely with our protein design and engineering colleagues, establish functional ex vivo and in vivo studies to evaluate protein therapeutics and establish a data-driven decision for drug lead and candidate selection.
- Working closely with our in vivo pharmacology team design studies to evaluate drug candidate in vivo characteristics such as drug distribution properties, pharmacokinetic profile, early safety readouts, and disease state modifications in murine and humanized cancer models.
- Oversee immune co-culture assays including mixed lymphocyte reaction, T cell-tumor cell cytotoxicity assays and other phenotypic assessments of genetically modified immune cells to identify phenotypes associated with a knockout or genetic modification of a gene of interest.
- Lead immune cell target assessment and prioritization efforts based on CRISPR-Cas9 screen readouts by designing studies to evaluate target-focused gene editing in immune cells and biologics working closely with protein engineering colleagues.
- Contribute to the development of technologies for in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screens by assisting in the design reagents and establishment of humanized tumor models.
- Ensure that biology team members keep detailed records of experiments in electronic notebooks, analyze data and prepare and deliver presentations to research team members and members of our executive leadership team.
Qualifications and Experience:
- PhD in Immunology or related field with postdoctoral experience and 7+ years of industry experience and experience in the development of immunotherapies or cell therapies.
- Extensive experience in cellular immunology in a translational biology setting, including experience immunotherapy or cell therapy target discovery and technical experience in assaying immune cell ex vivo and in vivo.
- Experience in the design and execution of CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screens in primary immune cells.
- Technical expertise to assist team members performing multi-color flow cytometry and Fluorescence Assisted Cell Sorting (FACS)
- Proven ability to manage drug discovery and development teams as demonstrated by a strong publication, patent and/or drug development record.
EvolveImmune will provide a competitive compensation package based on the level of the experience of the candidate.
EvolveImmune Therapeutics, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
Principals only.
Qualified applicants should apply using this link.
Senior Scientist, Protein Engineering
Who We Are
EvolveImmune Therapeutics is a next-generation immunotherapy platform company based in the Yale/New Haven biotechnology ecosystem with laboratories in Branford and Farmington, CT. EvolveImmune is harnessing its ‘Immunology First’ approach to create first-in-category cancer medicines which aim to transform the lives of patients by delivering superior, long-term outcomes compared to current anti-cancer therapies. The EvolveImmune team has established a first-in-class and highly differentiated tumor-targeted T cell costimulation platform designed to re-invigorate adaptive immune responses in solid tumors. In addition, building upon research that originated from the Sidi Chen Laboratory at Yale University, EvolveImmune is leveraging a novel in vivo CRISPR-based target discovery platform to develop a broad portfolio of first-in-class therapeutics for unmet needs in oncology and immune diseases.
The Role
We are seeking a Senior Scientist to join Protein Biotherapeutic group and contribute to a team effort to develop next-generation immunotherapies for effective cancer treatment. The core focus of this group is to use a multi-disciplinary approach to identify and validate tumor intrinsic, tumor micro-environment or immune cell targets tractable to therapeutic targeting, discover antibodies that selectively bind to these targets and use these antibodies to develop novel immunotherapeutic platforms that engage immune cells for efficient antitumor response.
A qualified candidate is a highly motivated and creative individual with substantial experience in protein biochemistry, protein/antibody expression and purification from mammalian cells using state of the art chromatography systems. A successful candidate will be responsible for protein and vector engineering, extensive molecular biology, tissue culture and cell biology work including, protein expression/purification, biophysical characterization, HT cloning, PCR/qPCR, cell line engineering and stable cell line generation. The candidate will also work closely with other members of the Biotherapeutic and Biology team members and contribute to protein/antibody expression and purification, biophysical characterizations, and target validation.
The successful candidate will collaborate with the Immune Discovery team for functional evaluation of the therapeutics leads using human PBMC or enriched human immune cell co-cultures assays to evaluate tumor-immune cell engagement, cytokine release profiles and immune phenotype assessment.
The successful candidate will be a clear communicator as well as effective collaborator, will demonstrate professional verbal and written communication, be capable of presenting scientific results to multidisciplinary teams and will contribute to writing scientific publications.
The colleague will interact with contract research organization (CROs) representatives, technician scientists in industry and academic centers and organizational leaders to contribute to highly integrative drug discovery and development effort.
We are looking for candidates who enjoy working in a team and can leverage the growth opportunities that a matrixed environment provides. This is an exceptional opportunity for someone who is excited about drug discovery and development and is driven to translate our discoveries into novel therapeutics.
Responsibilities
- Protein/antibody expression and purification from mammalian cells using affinity chromatography and size exclusion/IEX chromatography.
- Protein/antibody and bispecific antibody engineering, and expression vector engineering (transient and stable expression).
- Support biophysical characterization of proteins and antibodies using state of the art technologies for binding kinetics (SPR/BLI) and for biophysical properties ( DSC, CE, ELISA and other advanced molecular biology techniques).
- Tissue culture, cell line engineering, and stable cell line generation.
- Work in a team effort to establish biophysical and cell-based assays for antibody prioritization toward lead selection.
- Support target validation efforts by high throughput variable heavy and variable light chain antibody sequence cloning and reformatting, protein design and engineering.
- Collaborate and develop close scientific partnership with other functional areas across different teams.
- Help build a culture that embraces scientific excellence and continuous learning to increase our team’s ability to deliver novel drug development opportunities through rapid incorporation of emerging biotechniques on the leading-edge of oncology drug discovery.
- This role is a full time, in-person position in EvolveImmune’s laboratories in Branford CT.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
- PhD in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry/Cancer Biology or related discipline with at least 1-3 years industry experience; or MS in Molecular Biology/Cancer Biology/Biochemistry or related discipline with 3-5 years of industry experience.
- Ability to learn new techniques quickly and follow established protocols with precision.
- Perform tasks independently and able to interpret and communicate results.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work in team-based environment
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong hands-on experience in antibody expression/purification using affinity chromatography, SEC/IEX/HIC (AKTA FPLC Avant/Pure).
- Strong hands-on experience in Protein/antibody/bispecific antibody engineering and vector engineering.
- Proficient in biophysical characterization of protein/antibody using state of the art technologies including SPR (Biacore), BLI (Octet), DSC, aSEC/HIC/IEX (Agilent HPLC systems), LabChip (cGE), SDS-PAGE gel, ELISA.
- Proficiency in advanced molecular cloning techniques (infusion cloning/Gateway cloning), tissue culture techniques, cell line engineering, and stable cell line generation.
- Experience in protein display technologies such as phage display and/or yeast display, along with hands-on experience in library creation is a plus.
- In depth knowledge in immunology, immunooncology and immune cell biology is a plus
Physical/Mental Requirements
- Ability to perform complex and automated sequence and assay data analysis
- Must be able to wear personal protective equipment and adhere to biological safety consideration of the laboratory environment as defined by laboratory manager or group Directors.
- Must be able to handle mouse derived and human cell lines, and tissues.
- There will be less than 5% travel.
Other
EvolveImmune Therapeutics requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
EvolveImmune Therapeutics is an equal opportunity employer.
Principals only.
Qualified applicants should apply using this link.