Scientist, In Vivo Therapeutic Discovery - Gilbert Lab

About Arc Institute

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution conducting curiosity-driven basic science and technology development to understand and treat complex human diseases. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is an independent research organization founded on the belief that many important research programs will be enabled by new institutional models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley.

While the prevailing university research model has yielded many tremendous successes, we believe in the importance of institutional experimentation as a way to make progress. These include:

• Funding: Arc will fully fund Core Investigators’ (PIs’) research groups, liberating scientists from the typical constraints of project-based external grants.
• Technology: Biomedical research has become increasingly dependent on complex tooling. Arc Technology Centers develop, optimize and deploy rapidly advancing experimental and computational technologies in collaboration with Core Investigators. 
• Support: Arc aims to provide first-class support—operationally, financially and scientifically—that will enable scientists to pursue long-term high risk, high reward research that can meaningfully advance progress in disease cures, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune dysfunction.
• Culture: We believe that culture matters enormously in science and that excellence is difficult to sustain. We aim to create a culture that is focused on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, broad ambition, and selfless collaboration. 

Arc scaled to nearly 100 people in its first year. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly to several hundred in the coming years.

About the position

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Scientist or Senior Scientist with a strong background in in vivo technology development or virology to join the Gilbert lab at Arc Institute.

In this position you will play a critical role in A) developing advanced in vivo delivery technologies (e.g. viral/VLP/LNP) for CRISPR therapeutics and B) in using or developing in vivo functional genomics approaches. This will require the development of new technologies that solve the current limitations of in vivo approaches:  i) effective and precise genetic and transcriptional perturbations directly in vivo and ii) comprehensive and scalable readouts of perturbed cellular states. The successful candidate will develop and advance technologies in these areas to enable in vivo therapeutic approaches and also large-scale in vivo perturbation datasets across diverse cell types, tissues and organs. 

In this context, you will also have the opportunity to collaborate with pioneering labs that have developed the fundamental toolbox for functional genomics screens, including CRISPR nucleases, CRISPRi, CRISPRoff, CRISPRa, Cas13d, multiCas12a and serine and bridge recombinases.

About you

• You are passionate about science and love developing in vivo technologies for therapeutic delivery or for functional genomics that work exceptionally well in real-world biological applications.
• You are excited about answering questions related to therapeutic applications of genomic medicines.
• You have  strong in vivo experience, as well as deep expertise in one or more of these 3 areas:  virology, in vivo delivery (e.g. LNP/VLP/viral) or functional genomics.
• You are creative and are excited to try new ways of tackling problems beyond the technique/approaches you are familiar with. You enjoy stepping out of your comfort zone to learn new things and develop new experimental approaches.
• You are self motivated and work fast while remaining detail-oriented. You are good at troubleshooting. You are careful and diligent about good documentation practices and keeping things organized while moving at a rapid pace.
• You love to collaborate and help others and are excited to work as part of a team. Science is a team effort, and you pride yourself in taking the initiative to help. 

In this position you will

• Develop new technologies for in vivo delivery of therapeutic modalities such as CRISPR tools.
• Enable large scale in vivo functional genomics screening projects with simple and complex readouts such as single-cell and spatial readouts.
• Collaborate closely with other Gilbert lab scientists. 
• Collaborate with other Core Investigators or Arc Technology Centers to advance our Virtual Cell Initiative and Alzheimer’s Disease Initiatives.
• Keep up-to-date on advances in the field by reading the literature and attending key conferences.
• Analyze data and present at meetings and seminars.
• Train and mentor Research Associates and establish standardized protocols for the use by Gilbert lab or other groups at Arc.
• The successful candidate will be an ambitious self-starter, be motivated to apply his/her skills to diverse projects and enjoy working in a collaborative and fast-paced team environment

Requirements

• PhD in biology, virology, genetics, bioengineering or another relevant field.
• 4+ years of experience developing technology in either of these three areas:
• In vivo delivery (e.g. viral/VLP/LNP)
• In vivo functional genomics
• In vivo therapeutics
• Strong track record in developing innovative technologies with creative approaches
• In vivo experience and a desire to continue working primarily in vivo 
• Expertise in molecular biology in the context of in vivo delivery approaches, genome engineering or functional genomics
• Strong project management skills with the ability to plan, execute, and deliver results on time
• Extensive troubleshooting experience and strong problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated ability to drive forward highly collaborative projects with a high degree of independence from your mentor / manager

Preferred Qualifications

Expertise in either of the following areas will be considered an additional asset for this role:

• In vivo imaging
• Ability to analyze large and complex data sets using Python, R, or similar tools

The base salary range for this position is $124,000 - $148,000. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits. This position is also eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus, with the amount dependent on individual and institute performance factors.