Who We Are:
EvolveImmune Therapeutics is a next-generation immunotherapy platform company based in the Yale/New Haven biotechnology ecosystem with laboratories in Farmington and Branford, 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 co-stimulation 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:
EI seeks an innovative and highly motivated Scientist/Senior Scientist with a background in immunology to join the Immuno-Oncology Discovery team in Branford, CT. As a Scientist/Senior Scientist, you will be a vital team member focused on supporting Immuno-Oncology projects through the drug discovery process. You will bring your expertise in Immunology/cancer biology to establish therapeutic stable disease linkages using robust assay systems and deliver datasets that will accelerate EI pipeline programs’ progression to the clinic.
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 excited about drug discovery and development and driven to translate our findings into novel therapeutics while being mentored by experienced scientists.
The successful candidate will actively contribute to the characterization, validation, and differentiation of novel therapeutic concepts for rapid progression to clinical candidates for cancer indications.
This individual will work directly with the drug development project team to evaluate novel cancer immunotherapies designed to orchestrate adaptive immunity through optimal T-cell activation at tumor sites. This includes establishing robust primary cell assays and read-outs that will enable mechanism of action understanding and differentiation of molecules from the competition. We are looking for candidates with experience in working with human immune cells and tumor cells to evaluate the potential of novel immunotherapies to prevent or reverse T cell exhaustion in ex vivo assays and establishing immune cell cancer cell co-cultures assays for ex vivo evaluation of novel antibody-based immunotherapies. Experience in establishing dissociated tumor cell cultures is desired but optional. Candidates with expertise in flow cytometry are required for this role.
Accurate data recording, strong attention to detail, and the ability to follow standard procedures are critical for success in this role.
Duties And Responsibilities
In this laboratory-based position within the Immunobiology group, you will generate hypotheses, design and conduct experiments, and analyze and interpret data to enhance functional understanding of our candidate drugs. You will be expected to support cross-functional teams and work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure the timely generation and dissemination of critical program data. You will also review emerging literature and internal data to help target validation activities.
A solid foundation in immunology, especially T cell biology, with experience in different in vitro models for evaluating immune cell function and cross-talk between immune-stromal cells, is essential for this role. Equally important is your broad interest in immunological axes being leveraged therapeutically against cancer.
As a highly organized, self-motivated individual with a strong lab/practical background, you will stay up to date with relevant literature/techniques and have a genuine passion for this field of research. The position requires a strong interest in experimental work and the ability to work in a fast-paced matrix-structured work environment.
Essential Requirements
- Ph.D. in Immunology/Immuno-oncology or related field with 0-3+ years’ experience in drug discovery through a post-doc or industry. Experience in biotech/pharma is a plus but not required.
- Strong background in immunology and experience performing standard in vitro assays (immune cell activation, cytotoxic assays, etc.) and using complex co-culture models.
- Experience with immunology and molecular methods (e.g., multicolor FACS to phenotype diverse populations including stromal cells and leukocytes; immune cell polarization methods; PBMC and purified primary immune cell functional assays; proteomic analysis using multiplex assay such as MSD, Luminex, O-link; mRNA analysis by qPCR)
- Experience characterizing tumor microenvironment (TME) and establishing related assays (dissociated tumor cell assays, spheroid or organoid cultures) is a plus.
- Ability to independently design and execute research plans for one or more programs and to rapidly review, analyze, and interpret experimental results.
- Prior experience in performing in vitro pharmacology experiments with biologics is a plus.
- Ability to draft and execute experiments promptly, record SOPs and maintain an excellent laboratory notebook.
- Job complexity is high and requires working with a high degree of independence and a sense of urgency with excellent, timely communications.
- Strong interpersonal, influencing, and collaboration skills, with evidence of using these to support problem-solving and delivery in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
- Proven track record of success in your research and experience preparing written scientific reports and oral presentations.
Desirable Requirements
- Experience in characterizing TME
- Proficiency in performing high-dimensional analyses flow cytometric experiments, and data analysis.
- Genomic analysis of bulk and/or scRNA seq is a plus.