Platform Head, Human Genetics

Arena BioWorks, located in Cambridge, MA, is a new biomedical research institute focused on uncovering the mechanisms of human disease to identify opportunities for therapeutic intervention. The Institute's private funding model allows Arena to advance novel therapeutics by forming and supporting biotech companies up to the early clinical/series B stage.

As the Platform Head of the Human Genetics Team, you will lead a team of computational and experimental genomics scientists to assess the contribution of human genetic diversity to disease, and work across teams to perform functional assays to validate key hypotheses and identify novel therapeutic strategies. The team will perform in-depth analyses of human genetic and genomic data to identify variants influencing disease and generate hypotheses about their functional significance. These hypotheses will be tested in collaborative project teams by performing functional experiments to establish the contribution of variants to mechanisms driving disease biology, thereby enabling development of new therapeutic strategies.

As part of the Disease Mechanisms and Models Group, the Human Genetics team will collaborate closely with the Functional Genomics and Cellular Models teams to integrate findings with functional assays performed in disease-relevant model systems. The successful combination of human genetics, advanced CRISPR-based platforms, and disease modeling will further our understanding of gene regulation and function in human disease and have broad applications in the development of novel therapeutics for human disease.

The qualifying candidate is expected to thrive in a multidisciplinary environment, coordinate with other research teams, support internal discovery projects, consult with colleagues, and supervise junior associates on approaches to mine and integrate human genetics data, best practices, and state-of-the-art technologies. The desired candidate is passionate about utilizing human genomics data to gain a better understanding of human disease biology and generate meaningful insights for therapeutic development. They also strongly value collaborating with scientists across teams and scientific areas and enjoy continuously learning from the expertise of their peers and colleagues. Finally, the candidate is committed to mentoring and leading a team of scientists to perform at their highest potential and further their professional development.

Specific Responsibilities:

• Lead the Arena Human Genetics Team within the Disease Mechanisms and Models Group
• Leverage public human genomic and phenotypic data and internally generated datasets to derive actionable hypotheses
• Combine statistical genetics results with gene annotations, functional genomics, proteomics, and other datasets to identify impactful sequence variants and gain insight for target identification and further therapeutic development, including safety profiling, indication selection, and biomarker identification
• Source and prioritize biobank samples including clinical samples and iPSCs that can be leveraged to generate -omics datasets for insights into disease-specific phenotypes
• Work with lab-based teams to study human genetic variation in disease in high-dimensional functional assays with a goal of target discovery and therapeutic development
• Mentor and coach the team composed of scientists and engineers of varying levels of experience and education for sustained research productivity and professional development
• Independently identify areas of investigation for technology development and disease biology and work with leadership to initiate new projects and discuss big-picture vision
• Provide human genetics expertise to target discovery and therapeutic development efforts
• Rigorously document your work and prepare written data reports, including methodology, figure preparations, written description of the study in the form of manuscripts and/or progress reports
• Contribute to research presentations at local, national, and international meetings

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in bioinformatics, genetics, biostatistics, molecular biology, or related field, or equivalent experience, with a demonstrated record of productivity
• Supervisory experience in effectively leading a team of scientists, preferably including PhD-level or equivalent contributors
• Experience mining large human genetics datasets and biobanks, including statistical genetic methods for GWAS and rare variant association studies
• Experience with integrating data from multiple sources, including genome sequence, transcriptomics, proteomics, and other phenotypic profiling data generated using bulk and single cell approaches
• Expertise in analyzing high throughput genomic and sequencing data using scientific programming languages such as R, python, etc.
• Experience working with and communicating findings from human genetics data to computational and wet lab collaborators
• Familiarity with project management software, ELNs, and LIMS
• Proficiency in functional genomics, mammalian cell culture, molecular genomic techniques, and sophisticated high-content screening assays, is a plus
• Outstanding project management skills demonstrated through collaborative projects across organizational and functional boundaries
• Strong written and verbal communication skills demonstrated by publication of research papers and conference presentations
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills, both scientifically and in the ability to prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and adapt to shifting priorities