Scientist, Antibody Discovery, Horns 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 fully funds 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 over 350 people to date. 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 Lab at the Arc Institute. In this position, you will lead the development of a novel platform for mapping human antibody specificities at scale. You will play a critical role in building, optimizing, and applying a system for high-throughput identification of antigen-specific B cells and their antibody sequences through single-cell sequencing. Your work will directly impact our understanding of human immunity and the discovery of new antibodies.

The successful candidate will develop and scale this antibody discovery platform within the Horns lab at the Arc Institute. This work will initially focus on optimizing antigen-specific B cell isolation, establishing single-cell sequencing readouts, and scaling to multiplexed screens. In the longer term, this platform will be applied to comprehensively profile human immune repertoires for understanding human immunology in health and disease.

The candidate will collaborate with other members of Arc’s labs and Technology Centers in a dynamic environment to drive scientific discoveries, including groups within Arc Institute who are leaders in RNA biology, single-cell genomics, and AI/ML. The ideal candidate would have a passion for cutting-edge technology development and a proven track record of working in an interdisciplinary environment and turning concepts into reliable methods and results. This is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious self-starter who is motivated to apply his/her skills to diverse projects and enjoys working in a collaborative, fast-paced team environment.

About you

• You are passionate about science and understanding human immunity through the lens of new technology.
• You are excited to build new platforms for antibody discovery and immune repertoire analysis.
• 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 and optimize a platform for antigen-specific B cell labeling, sorting, and single-cell sequencing.
• Design and execute validation experiments, including specificity testing and antibody cloning and binding confirmation.
• Scale the platform to multiplexed antigen libraries for immune repertoire profiling.
• Analyze single-cell sequencing data computationally, including developing analysis pipelines.
• Apply these technologies to answer questions in human immunology.
• 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 single-cell genomics, antibody biology, and immune repertoire analysis by reading the literature and attending conferences.

Requirements

• PhD in immunology, molecular biology, genomics, bioengineering, or a related field with 0-5 years of relevant post-PhD experience in either academia or industry.
• Deep experience with single-cell sequencing technologies for immune profiling (e.g. 10X Genomics VDJ workflows).
• Demonstrated track record of developing or adapting sequencing-based assays, with strong troubleshooting skills.
• Strong background in antibody biology, B cell immunology, or adaptive immune repertoire analysis.
• Proficiency in flow cytometry, including multi-parameter panel design, optimization, and cell sorting.
• Experience with antigen-binding characterization assays (e.g. ELISA, SPR, BLI).
• Proven ability to analyze large and complex sequencing data sets using Python, R, or similar tools.
• Experience with mammalian cell culture and standard molecular biology techniques (cloning, construct design).
• 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 in a fast-paced environment and be both an independent thinker and a highly collaborative team player.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with antigen-barcoded B cell sequencing approaches (e.g. LIBRA-seq, CITE-seq) is a plus.
• Experience with antigen-specific cell sorting using labeled antigen probes (e.g. tetramer staining) is a plus.
• Experience with human primary immune cell isolation and culture is a plus.
• Experience with library design, pooled cloning, or high-throughput screening approaches is a plus.
• Experience with protein biochemistry (expression, purification) is a plus.
• Experience with machine learning approaches for sequence-function prediction is a plus.

The base salary range for this position is $121,250 to $159,500. 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.