Post doctoral scientist in synthetic biology for cellular immunology- 2 years fixed-term

Job description

Details:
The CGT platform unit is an integrated discovery-development-supply unit which will ensure that ground-breaking CGT medicines are seamlessly and expertly discovered and manufactured for clinical development and beyond. In recent years GSK has been working with a leading academic group in Italy (TIGET) to develop ex vivo gene therapies for Rare Diseases. We now have the EU approved ADA-SCID therapy Strimvelis and multiple additional ex vivo gene therapy products in clinical development. More recently GSK has secured a significant collaboration in the T-cell immunotherapy field with Adaptimmune and other licensing/partnership opportunities are being pursued. The progression of our own portfolio together with the maturation of emerging gene therapy technologies creates an imperative for GSK to now increase our investment in this space and establish an end to end leading platform. This will enable delivery of the portfolio in Rare Diseases and Oncology as well as ensuring that GSK is able to capture the potential of the emerging technologies in other therapeutic areas.

The Cell & Gene Therapy Discovery Research (CGT DR) team engages with all GSK therapy areas, including rare diseases, oncology and immuno-inflammatory, to develop their pre-clinical portfolio from target to clinical candidates. The focus of this team is to design the transgenes for optimal performance and perform pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo testing to understand how the payload interacts with the biology at the cell, tissue and organisms level. The level of input into the design, engineering and characterisation of candidate assets ranges from fully resourced program teams, to engagement with 3rd parties (e.g. Adaptimmune's lead NY-ESO-1 partnered project with GSK) and other support functions. Another important mission of the Cell and Gene Therapy Discovery Research team is to identify, incubate and develop novel technologies to enable or accelerate the discovery of future Cell and Gene Therapy medicines. These next generation technologies may come either from within GSK, or from the wider R&D community

We currently have an exciting post-doc position for a Molecular/Cell Biologist within CGT DR to support the developing engineered T-cell platform. The preferred candidate will report into the Discovery Research team within the Cell & Gene Therapy platform which focuses on the early stages of developing Cell and Gene Therapy medicines. You will be working on the development of a new technology in collaboration with Therapy Areas, primarily those developing engineered T cells and other immune cells, and contribute to the payload design and transgene delivery for ex vivo therapies.

Your focus will be in the laboratory. You will have a strong desire to be involved in cell and gene therapy discovery projects and a willingness to develop and train others as required. You will also have responsibilities for the appropriate maintenance of laboratory equipment and the day-to-day functioning of the laboratory: this will include participation in the routine cleaning of equipment, adherence to lab safety procedures and contribution to the ordering and receiving of laboratory stocks and reagents.

You will have a keen interest in cutting-edge research with a strong desire to deliver science from the bench. The ability to innovate and form productive interactions with scientists across GSK will be key skills for success in this role. Working as part of a multidisciplinary team, the candidate will be responsible for data preparation, analysis, documenting and reporting the results to these teams. You will be expected to maintain knowledge of current scientific literature relevant to the role.

If requiring an adjustment for a disability, once selected for
Interview you may contact ************@*******.**

Closing date for applications: 14th November 2016

When applying for this role, please use the 'cover letter' of the on-line application to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above.
The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application.

Thank you for your interest in this opportunity.

*LI-GSK

Contact information:
You may apply for this position online by selecting the Apply now button.

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Desired profile

Basic qualifications:
• PhD with relevant work experience in biology, virology or a related discipline.

• Scientific: You will possess significant laboratory experience in molecular biology, tissue culture techniques (primary cultures or cell lines) and demonstrate experience across a range of cell analysis techniques such as flow cytometry. Demonstration of practical experience of molecular biology techniques to enable the production of engineered mammalian cells and recombinant proteins is essential (such as PCR/qPCR, gDNA/RNA isolation). An understanding of a range of orthogonal biological techniques associated with the development, engineering and the in vitro testing of engineered chimeric antigen receptors and T-cell receptors is desired.

• Teamwork: Demonstrated ability to interact effectively within a multi-disciplinary team and with other internal and external business partners using influencing, communication and relationship building skills. Demonstrated ability to multitask and react and adapt to changing priorities and business direction.

• Communication: Attention to detail and good communication and documentation skills will be expected, as will be a flexible commitment to adding value within the role. Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate your work and data to various audiences in the form of presentations and written reports.

• Problem Solving: Demonstrated ability to break down complex problems into achievable goals and provide effective solutions that meet the needs of our business partners

Preferred qualifications:
• Experience working in a wide array of state of the art technologies used in cell and gene therapy, including gene delivery techniques (viral and non viral), gene editing and novel cell-based immunotherapies is desirable.
• Experience with protein expression, purification and characterisation techniques is desirable. It is also desirable an interest in protein engineering and in learning techniques to characterise small molecule –protein interactions such as SPR.
• An understanding of the drug discovery process - preferably in the area of cell and gene therapy and/or biopharmaceuticals
• Experience of working in a range of therapeutic areas, such as oncology, respiratory and infectious diseases, or immune-inflammation
• Basic and proven understanding of intellectual property and data integrity to support asset progression through pre-clinical research/development.