Permanent

Chesterford Research Park, Cambridge - with flexible working

(On site parking available)

The Position

We are seeking a highly talented and experienced Senior Director/ VP Translational Science who shares our excitement about Mestag’s science, is passionate about advancing therapeutics targeting activated fibroblasts from research into clinical development, champions our culture and honours our commitment to patients.

 

Reporting ad interim into the SVP Research and Early Development, transitioning across to our CMO once in place, this is an exciting opportunity for an experienced translational science leader to build and lead a team to support progression of Mestag’s portfolio from preclinical into clinical development and help define targeted clinical studies in selected patient populations in oncology and inflammatory disease.

 

You will have significant translational experience from leading preclinical and early clinical development activities supporting novel biologics for oncology and/or inflammation in biotech or pharma environments. The successful candidate will be responsible for building Mestag’s translational science team, working closely with program leads and external collaborators, consultants and CROs to design and implement translational strategies for Mestag’s growing portfolio, including target engagement strategies, biomarker development, indication selection, assay development for PK, PD and immunogenicity assessment and input into early clinical trial design.

 

The role will work with a cross functional team to ensure the early definition of, and agreement on endpoint and biomarker strategy for clinical development and regulatory approvals.

 

Your key responsibilities:

• Provide high quality scientific and translational leadership to building Mestag’s translational science team, balancing resource and capability needs for new and ongoing projects to enable successful and timely progress to clinical evaluation in selected patient populations

• Develop models, both preclinical and clinical, to ensure robust decision making on developability of drug molecules in therapeutic areas of interest

• Conceive and execute translational strategies to support advancing discovery projects into clinical development programs; providing the link between early research and the clinical team.

• Oversee the development of detailed work plans to incorporate quantitative, objective end points into clinical studies to demonstrate target engagement, pharmacodynamic regulation of pathways of interest, modulation of pharmacologic mechanism and information to aid patient selection

• Lead a group of scientists and physicians that will work to support programs directly; nurturing a culture of engagement, respect and high performance within a team environment. Provide leadership, coaching and feedback; mentor and empower personnel.

• Work with other matrix functional areas to define key aspects of the integrated development plans, including key early clinical translational steps in the development strategy, the assessment of medical need, proposal of clinical development pathways, review of preclinical data for clinical implications and acquisition of clinical samples.

• Define and execute on the translational elements of plans for Mestag’s projects including clinical assay development, assays for PK/PD assessment, biomarker strategy and ADA assessment;

• Identify, establish and manage an external network of partners/collaborators to access and develop required assays, models and capabilities at the right time to fully enable project plans, including managing collaborations and internal capabilities for accessing and analyzing patient tissue samples

• Contribute to writing and reviewing reports and documents related to the regulatory process including IND submissions and to meetings with regulatory bodies

 

In more detail:

• Work with Mestag’s senior team and program leaders to generate the translational vision for each project; how it will benefit a specific patient population and ensure that Mestag generates data necessary to demonstrate potential to bring a differentiated and impactful treatment solution to that patient population.

• Design and implement translational plans to quickly and efficiently progress candidate molecules to IND filing and through phase I clinical studies which generate data to support progression into phase II

• Leverage dependable CRO’s and your network of academic collaborators to bring high quality science, enabling data driven decisions.

• Contribute to and ensure generation of robust and high-quality patents and regulatory documentation in support of molecules progressing through pre-IND and clinical development

• Authorship of peer reviewed manuscripts and presentation of original work at scientific conferences and symposia; Active presentation of findings at internal and external meetings

 

Requirements/experience

• Advanced degree (MD or PhD) in translational science/medicine, Immunology, Immuno-oncology or related field and extensive industrial experience

• Demonstrated track record in leading cross-functional teams and work streams (e.g., translational medicine, biostatistics, regulatory, pre-clinical pharmacology, clinical and immunogenicity assay development)

• Understanding of the entire therapeutic development process, including clinical and non-clinical study design, use of immunologic surrogates, assay development and importance of target product profile.

• Ability to execute on plans to tight timelines and ensure delivery

• Experienced at managing external collaborations/partnerships, as well as mentoring teams/individual scientists in the achievement of project goals

• Demonstrable track record of successful research supported by publications (peer reviewed publications, oral presentations, posters & patent filings)

• Excellent communication (written and verbal), influencing, and interpersonal skills

• Passionate, inclusive, open-minded, collaborative and forward-thinking

 

About Mestag

Mestag was founded to develop new medicines for people affected by inflammatory disease and cancer. We develop impactful therapies for patients by targeting activated fibroblast populations and their role in influencing the immune system in disease. Our founding investigators comprise leading experts in inflammatory disease, cancer, computational biology and fibroblast biology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Broad Institute, University of Oxford and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The Mestag team is progressing a pipeline of first in class therapeutics to interrupt fibroblast-mediated effects on immune cells in inflammatory disease and immuno-oncology. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, we are supported by leading global investors SV Health Investors, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Forbion, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Northpond Ventures.

Our team shares a common purpose: we are focused on developing impactful therapeutics that can change patients’ lives. By placing patients at the center of our work, our values have created a strong culture of purpose and delivery. We are looking for proactive, creative and passionate team players to help build and shape our company into a world leader.

For more information, please visit www.mestagtx.com

Note to Agencies: We are not working with agencies on this role so please do not send us any speculative CVs.