Senior Research Associate/Associate Scientist: Antibody Engineering and Molecular Biology

About the Role:

We are seeking experts and enthusiasts in antibody engineering to lead and assist in discovery and optimization of therapeutic antibodies. The ideal candidates will have a thirst for innovation as well as solid experience in display technologies, including phage, yeast or ribosome display.  This role will also involve small scale expression, purification and characterization of candidate molecules.

Protillion’s platform technology allows for the evaluation of millions of variants simultaneously, supplanting traditional high-throughput screening methods. We are well positioned to leverage recent developments in machine learning applications to protein engineering. Come join a company on the frontier of protein engineering and bring your career to the next level and have some fun along the way!

Responsibilities:

• Conduct antibody discovery campaigns from antigen design and library construction, through enrichment of candidate antibodies.
• Assist with recombinant protein production including antigen construct design, transient transfection, FPLC purification and initial QC and characterization.
• Use molecular biology techniques to assemble libraries and clone antigen and antibody expression constructs.
• Use experience with single domain, as well as conventional (scFv) formats to design and construct high-diversity synthetic antibody libraries as well as smaller, focused libraries used for optimization of therapeutic candidates.
• Assist with characterization assays to assess stability, specificity, solubility and other characteristics related to developability and manufacturability of lead molecules.
• Work closely with the Platform Development team to construct libraries suitable for screening on Protillion’s platform instruments.
• Contribute at the group level by using your experience in therapeutic antibody engineering to guide optimization and development of candidate molecules using thoughtful, well-researched technical approaches.
• Assist with the general operations of an antibody engineering lab including ordering, organization, stocking and maintenance of laboratory equipment.

Required Techniques:

• Well versed in display technologies (phage, yeast and ribosome display)
• Library transformation into yeast and/or bacteria
• Flow cytometry and biosensor antibody binding assays (biacore, octet)
• Standard cloning techniques (PCR, ligation, Gibson assembly)
• General cell culture techniques for suspension cells (CHO and 293) including maintenance and transient transfection.
• Protein purification using FPLC or gravity column

Preferred Techniques:

• FACS with yeast and mammalian cells
• NGS library prep
• NGS sequence analysis
• In vitro cell based assays for assessing biological activity of therapeutic antibodies.
• BLI (Octet) for measuring antibody binding kinetics and epitope binning.
• Ribosome display and/or IVTT

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in biology, chemical engineering or equivalent.
• At least 2 years antibody engineering experience.
• Ability and enthusiasm for working in a laboratory.
• Full-time, on-site in Carlsbad California.

Compensation Range: $95,000/yr - $151,000/yr