Job Description
Position Summary
Provide support to specific cell therapy programs. Responsible for establishing infrastructure, participating in developing strategies, techniques, and approaches in support of consolidating current NK cell therapy programs and developing next generation ideas and products. Experience with novel cellular technologies, in vivo evaluation of modalities in an oncology setting and experience with approaches for gene editing or acumen to pick these up is important. According to their level of responsibility, this individual will help drive and/or provide leadership in the area of process development of engineered NK cell products, both from a research perspective as well as product development.
Essential Functions
• Member of scientific research team
• Contribute to the establishment of laboratory capability and laboratory systems.
• Provides input into developing research work plan and associated experiments.
• Input into identifying technical and quality requirements required to complete work plan.
• Other duties as required, in line with a start-up biotechnology environment, maximum flexibility is essential.
• Develop, execute, and document strategies for isolating and modifying NK cells from primary sources.
• Lead and/or support process development of NK cell therapy production processes.
• Evaluate raw materials and culture systems for use in NK cell therapy manufacturing processes
• Lead and/or support process optimization efforts to increase process robustness, reduce costs and improve yield, including evaluation and implementation of new technologies for specific manufacturing processes, as appropriate.
• Collaborate with the Manufacturing team to identify potential process improvements and design appropriate experiments to evaluate and implement those changes
• Design and execute experiments independently; accurately record, analyze and communicate data to senior staff and team members
• Present results in team meetings and deliver presentations to both small and large groups Team focused (Principal Scientist)
• Senior member of the scientific team responsible for managing a team of scientists.
• Effectively communicate scientific results to a technical and non-technical audience.
• Experience with guiding junior level research associates
• Contribute to building out team, establishment of laboratory capability and lab systems.
Project Management/Planning (Principal Scientist)
• Lead discrete project work streams within own discipline
• Input into developing research work plan and associated experiments.
• Management of study planning to deliver on milestones.
• Responsible for identifying technical and quality requirements required to complete work plan.
• Planning conduct and reporting of experiments. Education/Experience Requirements
• Possession of an MSc or PhD in immunology and lymphocyte biology with post-doc experience, or a Bachelor's with at least 2 years of experience, preferably in an industry environment in one of the following disciplines: cancer cellular therapy, cancer immunology, immunology, or related field.
• Prior experience with cellular therapies is important. Experience with developing lymphocytebased cell therapies, especially in an industry setting would be preferred. Experience of working with NK cells is desirable.
• Capability to work with nucleic acid constructs and modification of effector lymphocytes.
• Ability to be flexible, innovative and highly organized to work quickly and efficiently in a growing biotech start-up environment is necessary.
Required Competencies – Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
• Experience in different techniques used in immunology and cancer cell biology for characterizing native and modified lymphocytes for product development
• Previous experience in development environment is strongly preferred with prior experience in Process Development or Manufacturing setting is a plus
• Proficiency with aseptic techniques for mammalian cell culture
• Experience with isolation and culturing of lymphocytes from various sources is necessary.
• Experience with ELISA, flow cytometry, cell killing assays
• Extensive experience with multi-color flow cytometry data acquisition and analysis using FlowJo • Excellent data organization and analysis using relevant software and working knowledge of statistical and analytical tools is preferred
• Capability to assist with planning proof of concept studies in different cancer models both in vitro and in vivo are desired.
• A team player and significant experience with working in a team setting.
• Well organized and has good experience in designing and documenting protocols and data generated
• A methodical approach to analysing and processing data
• Good problem-solving skills.
• Good time management and organisational skills • The ability to work independently
• Strong communication skills
• The ability and desire to work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams
• Good track record in delivering projects on time and on budget.
• Ability to learn specific experimental and computer-based techniques and apply them to practical tasks and assignments
• Ability to work on complex problems where analysis requires an evaluation of multiple factors.
• Ability to contribute and promote ideas and research proposals.
• Ability to supervise the work of less experienced laboratory staff.
• Flexibility to provide support to several senior scientists at the same time.
Our client is an equal opportunities employer. For further information on this position please contact John Phillips at The RFT Group on 01 2302400 / john.phillips@rftgroup.ie Check out all our open jobs on our Recruitment website: www.rftgroup.ie Follow us on Linked-in,