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Scientist, Delivery, Horns Lab

Palo Alto, CA

About Arc Institute

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution that conducts 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 has scaled to nearly 200 people. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly in the coming years.

About the position

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Scientist to join the Horns laboratory at the Arc Institute. In this position, you will contribute to developing cutting-edge delivery technology. You will play a critical role in creating new approaches to discover and engineer biological nanoparticle-based delivery vectors – such as virus-like particles and vesicles – for precise delivery of nucleic acids and other therapeutic cargo. Your work will directly impact the development of therapeutic systems to address complex diseases.

The successful candidate will discover, design, and engineer delivery vehicles. We will initially focus on creating novel, scalable strategies for characterizing and optimizing next-generation delivery vehicles for cell type- or tissue-specific targeting, with a focus on viral and extracellular vesicle-based vectors. The candidate will collaborate with other members of Arc’s labs and Technology Centers in a dynamic environment to drive scientific discoveries, including partnering with groups within Arc Institute who are leaders in viral vector and vesicle engineering, RNA medicine, single-cell genomics, genome engineering, and AI/ML. The successful candidate will be an ambitious self-starter, be motivated to apply their skills to diverse projects and enjoy working in a collaborative, fast-paced team environment.

About you

  • You are passionate about science and about tackling challenging problems in drug delivery, synthetic biology, and complex human disease.
  • You are excited to develop new molecular technologies to answer complex questions.
  • You are creative and eager to explore new approaches beyond the techniques you are familiar with. You enjoy stepping out of your comfort zone to learn new things and develop new experimental approaches.
  • You work fast, yet are diligent and detail-oriented. You are good at troubleshooting. You are careful about good documentation practices and keeping things organized while moving at a rapid pace.
  • You excel at organization, time management, and task prioritization, and enjoy driving multiple projects in parallel.
  • You love to collaborate and help others. Science is a team effort, and you pride yourself in taking the initiative to help.

In this position, you will

  • Develop technologies for discovering, characterizing, and engineering biological nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems (e.g. viral vectors and vesicles) using protein engineering and scalable screening approaches.
  • Embrace the opportunity to creatively collaborate with Technology Centers and other laboratories.
  • Maintain accurate and detailed records of experimental protocols, results, and conclusions.
  • Present key research findings at internal meetings and seminars, and external conferences.
  • Provide guidance and mentorship to Research Associates.
  • Stay updated on advancements in the field of synthetic biology and drug delivery by reading the literature and attending conferences.

Requirements

  • PhD in cell or molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, bioengineering, or a related field with 0-5 years of relevant postdoctoral experience in academia and/or industry.
  • Extensive expertise in pooled screening technologies and associated library design, implementation, and NGS workflows.
  • Strong experience in developing viral vectors, vesicles, lipid nanoparticles, or similar delivery systems.
  • Experience with mammalian cell culture, cell engineering, and associated techniques for construct design, cloning, and characterization of genetically modified cells (flow cytometry, microscopy).
  • Proven ability to troubleshoot complex experimental workflows.
  • Ability to analyze large and complex data sets using Python, R, or similar tools.
  • Strong project management skills with the ability to plan, execute, and deliver results on time.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Demonstrated ability to work both independently and in a highly collaborative multidisciplinary environment.
  • Willingness to learn and conduct in vivo experiments with animal models. 

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with computational protein design or genome mining is a plus.
  • Experience with protein biochemistry is a plus.
  • Experience with animal handling and procedures (e.g. injection, tissue collection) is a plus.

The base salary range for this position is $121,500 to $134,750. 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.



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