Your mission
We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated protein biochemist who will be dual-skilled in cell culture to join our dynamic team. This role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge drug discovery projects, where the quality control of protein reagents for performing antibody immunisations, candidate screening and biophysical profiling of drug leads is critical.
What You'll Do
You will help establish and shape this new internal capability, specifically with respect to producing recombinant proteins in-house. You will have operational responsibility for an AKTA FPLC, as well as maintaining suspension/transient mammalian cell lines and/or performing relevant protein QC.
You will be agile and support drug screening and validation experiments. This could further involve performing drug discovery screening assays using recombinant proteins (e.g. ELISAs) and/or cell-based assays to determine the functional relevance of proteins (e.g. using over-expressing or primary cell lines). A willingness to be flexible and support the overall drug discovery program is key.
Molecular biology
1. Design DNA constructs and/or vectors to overexpress proteins within recombinant systems.
Cell biology
1. Perform routine tissue culture of suspension/transient mammalian cell lines under sterile conditions, monitoring aspects such as cell counts and viability. Perform cell banking, as required.
2. Harvest and clarify cell culture fluid, as suitable for downstream protein purification.
3. Support other drug screening efforts using cell-based assays and monitoring functional readouts, such as cell viability, proliferation, and cytotoxicity.
Protein purification
1. Design, execute and/or oversee experiments for the purification of recombinant proteins and antibodies.
2. Develop and implement purification protocols using chromatography techniques (e.g. affinity, ion exchange and size exclusion).
Biophysical characterisation and quality control (QC) analysis
1. Perform experiments and/or interpret data derived from:
1. QC analyses such as SDS-PAGE, Western blots, binding ELISAs, endotoxin-testing and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), biophysical analyses of proteins using techniques such as fluorescence, biolayer interferometry (BLI) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR).
2. Critically analyse data describing protein stability or antibody developability (e.g. arising from thermal, physical and/or chemical stress), 3D-structure and drug-antigen interactions.
Your profile
1. Hands-on experience of working within a laboratory in an industrial or drug-discovery environment (e.g. biotech, charity or pharma).
2. Experience of producing recombinant proteins from mammalian cell lines.
3. Experience of protein purification using AKTA systems.
4. Experience of biophysical characterisation techniques, QC and/or profiling of proteins.
5. Experience of screening approaches for drug discovery using ELISA and/or cell-based assays.
6. PhD in Biochemistry or a related field with 2-3 years post-qualification experience OR MSc with equivalent years of experience.
7. Good communication skills to collaborate with cross-functional platform teams in order to advance project goals.
8. Evidence of having maintained detailed experimental records, utilising informatic-supported inventory and electronic lab books.
Why us?
1. Be part of a motivated, dynamic and diverse team supporting cutting edge drug discovery.
2. State of the art offices and laboratories at the Westworks, White City.
3. Competitive reward package including private medical insurance, bonus, pension, and much more!
About Us
Engitix is a growing biotech company based in White City Place, West London. We are dedicated to developing better therapies for advanced fibrosis and solid tumours by leveraging our pioneering extracellular matrix (ECM) platform. Our platform allows the synthesis of realistic in vitro 3D models that serve as tools to transform our ability to identify new targets and biomarkers, determine mechanisms of action and more accurately predict the efficacy of therapeutic candidates.
Join us today in our mission to create a healthier future for patients with life-threatening diseases such as fibrosis and cancer.
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