Associate Scientist/ Senior Associate Scientist, Discovery Biology

About the Role 

As an associate scientist, you will be a crucial member of the discovery biology team, comprising highly creative and talented individuals with exceptional expertise in biologics discovery. This group is responsible for establishing disease relevant cellular models and assays, validating targets, and interrogating mechanisms of action to drive discovery projects and develop a differentiated therapeutics pipeline. You will work collaboratively with functional genomics, proteomics, protein design and engineering, and computational scientists.  

About You
  
You are an enthusiastic cell biologist with extensive experience in target validation, mechanism elucidation, and assay development with a record of generating high quality data in support of drug discovery efforts. You are conscientious, detail-oriented, organized, productive, and dedicated to collaborating closely with colleagues to drive projects forward.

Responsibilities  

• Design, execution, and interpretation of cell-based studies to validate target function in disease and to characterize pharmacology and mechanism of target modulators
• Development and optimization of cell-based assays for screening of small or large molecules
• Cell line development (stable overexpression/KO cell lines, reporter assays, etc.)
• Collaboration across cross-functional teams to deliver new mechanistic insights and advance discovery efforts
• Interpretation and presentation of experimental findings at research meetings
• Maintenance of accurate and detailed records of experiments, protocols, and results in accordance with company standards

Minimum Qualifications  

• PhD in Immunology, Cancer Biology, Cell & Molecular Biology or related field, industry experience preferred
• Bachelor’s degree in biological science plus a minimum of 10 years of industry experience
• Expert culturing both adherent and suspension mammalian cells, including primary mouse or human cells
• Proficient with common cellular assays including proliferation, apoptosis, cytotoxicity, and reporter assays
• Experienced in qPCR, Western blot, ICC, IHC, ELISA, FRET, flow cytometry and other standard molecular biology techniques
• Adept at gene silencing (e.g., RNAi), gene editing (e.g., CRISPR), and overexpression (e.g., lentivirus, BacMam)

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in cell assay development for single and multi-pass transmembrane proteins
• Experience with co-culture systems (e.g. cancer/immune cells)
• Experience with 3D spheroid or organoid models
• Experience assaying primary immune cell activation (e.g. flow cytometry)
• Experience with T-cell dependent cellular cytotoxicity (TDCC), antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), or antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) assays
• Experience miniaturizing cellular assays for automated systems
• Experience with plasmid/vector design
• Experience with single cell cloning

Compensation

The specific compensation package for this role depends on experience, qualifications and level. We anticipate the compensation range to be $92,000 to $135,000 per year.

Xaira Therapeutics is an equal opportunity employer. We thrive on diversity and collaboration, and we welcome candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences.