Isogenica Ltd: Research Assistant I

THE COMPANY

Isogenica Ltd. is a leader in the use of synthetic biology and in vitro display for the discovery and optimisation of novel single domain biotherapeutics.

Isogenica develops LlamdA® VHH: highly versatile small format antibodies which we use to construct next generation biotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and other serious diseases. LlamdA® VHH can be assembled to create bispecific and multi-specific biotherapeutics, or used to achieve targeted drug delivery as components of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and cell and gene therapies including CAR-Ts.

Over the past few years, Isogenica has built strong and lasting relationships with biotech and biopharma partners, both through the licensing of CIS Display and via lead discovery alliances. This has resulted in solid, diversified pipeline of partnered molecules – some of which have already entered clinical development. In doing so, the company has built a solid infrastructure and expertise for early stage lead discovery, characterization and optimization.

Isogenica is now expanding its scope of activities to enable broader, deeper strategic relationships with biotech and pharmaceutical partners and to support the development of an internal pipeline of differentiated biotherapeutics. Aligned to this expansion, Isogenica is currently seeking a Research Scientist to join our team.

WHO YOU ARE

As a Scientist in Isogenica’s Alliances team, you will be a highly motivated team player who will design and carry out in vitro display selections, as well as screening and characterisation of clones from our protein scaffold libraries. You will be part of a team where the ability to work both individually and collaboratively is essential. Your creativity and enthusiasm for learning and development will be encouraged and relied upon to help us deliver both exceptional outputs to our partners as well as advances in our own technologies and working practices.

THE ROLE

You are seeking a career in antibody drug discovery. You can expect a broad and stimulating role, getting hands-on experience supporting internal and partnered discovery campaigns.

Your role will be to carry out selections and screening campaigns on Isogenica’s antibody fragment libraries using phage and CIS Display to generate novel biotherapeutics to treat serious diseases.
You will be involved in developing novel assays and using your previous experience to help Isogenica deliver high quality data, written and verbal reports for both internal and partnered discovery programmes.

You can independently identify issues, should they arise, and pro-actively suggest or execute troubleshooting or optimization activities.

This role and responsibilities will be supported by the Alliance Manager and Director of Alliances.
Ideally, you will have an MSc in Biology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology or related field with minimum or 2 years’ experience in in vitro display technologies or assay development.

REQUIREMENTS

• Experience of characterising protein-protein interactions.
• Motivated self-starter who can work independently and collaboratively in a team environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to interpret complex data and troubleshoot where necessary.
• Demonstrable planning and organisational skills, with the ability to plan, execute and communicate outputs from research campaigns in a concise manner.

DESIRABLE

Experience of some of the following is desirable:
• Experience of cell-based assays, including flow cytometry and internalisation
• Experience of display selection strategies.
• Experience of working in the field of drug discovery in an industrial setting.
• Antibody or scaffold protein engineering.
• Experience of recombinant E.coli expression systems, protein purification and characterisation.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Perform target antigen quality control, including development of functional assays.
• Carry out cell-based assays, including flow cytometry and internalisation.
• Run selection campaigns against validated protein targets using established protocols.
• Clone candidates into protein expression cassettes for small scale production, purification and further characterisation.
• Characterize selected candidates via SPR/BLI (Biacore or Octet), ELISA, cellular assays.
• Support technology development efforts within Isogenica.
• Keep up to date on developments within drug discovery technologies.
• Report in internal meetings and externally to collaborators.
• Accurately recording and sharing experimental procedures and data.
• Complying with health and safety policies including conducting risk assessments and COSHH forms applicable to your work.