Passkey Therapeutics is a growing, collaborative, open, and agile biotechnology startup located in the heart of the Boston/Cambridge biotech hub. Founded by experienced drug discovery leaders with a shared vision, our proprietary platform uniquely exploits synergistic mechanisms in human biology to design novel therapeutics for diseases with unmet need. We are a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary team, with core expertise in human genetics, biology, and medicinal/ computational chemistry, dedicated to our mission of bringing life-changing therapies to patients.
The candidate will join our growing biology team to initially focus on two objectives: 1) to biologically and pharmacologically validate novel targets emerging from our proprietary target discovery platform and 2) to discover and advance small molecule inhibitors against these targets in collaboration with computational and medicinal chemistry colleagues. The ideal candidate is a creative and ambitious drug discovery biologist with a track record of developing and executing both binding, biochemical, and cell-based assays in support of small molecule SAR elucidation. Mammalian tissue culture, familiarity with a range of assay readouts and instrumentation, and a thorough understanding of SAR assay controls and data treatment are required. Direct experience performing target validation, biological studies to characterize drug mechanism, and collaborating with medicinal chemists in a hit-to-lead or lead optimization setting would greatly benefit the candidate in their role at Passkey.
The candidate should possess exemplary skills in experimental design and interpretation, and be comfortable reporting their data and explaining the relevance of those results in the context of the mission. They ideally enjoy working with others and embrace a philosophy of continuous learning and improvement.
Responsibilities:
Develop, validate, and execute binding, biochemical, and cell-based assays to characterize small molecule inhibitors of novel targets as they enter our pipeline
Analyze assay results, ie curve-fitting with normalization to controls, upload screening data into a central database, and highlight the most important results for the rest of the team
Work collaboratively with our multi-disciplinary team of scientists, organizing and presenting key findings at regular lab meetings and team meetings
As part of a team, help manage inventory of biological reagents, cell lines, and small molecule libraries using a LIMS
Maintain accurate, well-organized experimental records in an electronic lab notebook
Required Qualifications/Attributes:
BS in a relevant scientific area, and 5+ years in biotech or pharma, with significant direct experience supporting drug discovery programs with in vitro pharmacology assay development / execution to elucidate small molecule SAR
Expertise with aseptic techniques and mammalian tissue culture are required. Must have experience growing a variety of mammalian cell lines and knowledge of best practices for maintaining and QC of cell stocks
Experience developing and running various medium to high-throughput assays for mechanism of action or SAR, curve fitting, and uploading data to a centralized database (ie CDD Vault, Dotmatics, or similar)
Highly motivated, eager to drive research forward based on a set of broad objectives and vision
Ability to adapt to evolving priorities in a fast-paced research environment, with a passion for continuous learning
Preferred Qualifications:
MS/PhD in a relevant scientific area
Deeper expertise in at least two of the following areas:
Various cell and molecular biology techniques including several of the following: qPCR, transfection, CRISPR/RNAi, western blot, nucleic acid preparation, RNA-seq, flow cytometry, imaging
Cell-based phenotypic assays such as proliferation, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, ELISA, luciferase or GFP-based reporter screens, HTRF, HiBiT, MSD
Immunology skills such as flow cytometry, EliSpot, cytotoxicity assays, intracellular cytokine staining, T cell proliferation and differentiation
Biochemical assays such as in vitro enzyme activity assays; binding assays such as SPR, BLI, ITC; protein purification
Contact:
Please email jobs@passkeytx.com with any questions.
Employment type
Full-time
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