Scientist - Oncology Bioscience

LOCATION: Cambridge, UK

SALARY: Competitive salary and benefits package, relative to qualifications and experience

POSITION SUMMARY

Amphista Therapeutics is a fast-growing Cambridge-based biotech and the leading European Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) company. Our unique scientific approach to TPD, one of the hottest areas in modern drug discovery, gives us a range of advantages over other therapeutic strategies.

We have completed an oversubscribed $53M funding round to allow us to progress our portfolio of projects and greatly strengthen the development of our underlying scientific platform. We were delighted to recently announce two separate collaboration deals with Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck Healthcare which will allow us to grow and advance our therapeutic portfolio even faster, utilising our unique technology.

Initially founded from the laboratory of Professor Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee) our team comprises both academic and drug discovery pioneers of the TPD field and a growing R&D team focused on advancing a portfolio of medicines to the clinic using our proprietary next generation TPD technologies We’re now growing the team further and have an opportunity for an experienced project leader to join us to help us move our portfolio of projects into the clinic.

This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the fastest-growing UK-based drug discovery biotech’s and be part of a dynamic, adventurous and fast-moving team of experienced drug discoverers and TPD experts in a brand-new research facility.

We are looking for a highly motivated individual to support advancement of our oncology portfolio projects. Using your expertise and understanding of the disease biology to develop and run in vitro and cell-based assays to interrogate target biology and understand mode-of-action and pathways of our TPD molecules. By generating compelling experimental data to validate mode of action of our novel therapeutic molecules, this role will contribute to the discovery of new drug candidates with a wide variety of projects spanning different disease areas. As a key member of the newly formed disease biology team, the candidate will apply theoretical and technical expertise in signalling pathways and disease biology to establish in vitro assays and support in vivo studies by delivering datasets that directly impact decisions on development of therapeutics. Understanding the use of different in vivo models will be a plus.

This predominantly lab-based role will suit candidates with experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team in a drug discovery setting. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing and dynamic company operating at the cutting edge of protein degradation-based drug discovery to develop first-in-class medicines to treat cancer and other areas of high unmet medical need.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, conduct and analyse robust cell-based assays to interrogate target and pathway biology and understand compound mechanism-of-action, leveraging both in-house and CRO capabilities
• Generation and analysis of in vitro models to understand target biology and mechanism-of-action.
• Analysis of in vivo samples to gain insight into in vivo target biology.
• Designing, performing and interpreting cell biology and mechanism-of-action studies such as proliferation assays, protein assays (western blot, immunofluorescence assays); mRNA assays (RT-PCR, qPCR, RNASeq)
• Develop, troubleshoot and implement cell-based assays
• Keep abreast of current literature on cutting edge techniques in the field
  

Education / Experience:

• PhD in Biology, Biochemistry, or related field or BSc/Msc and 3+ years industrial experience in a biotech or dynamic pharma company.
• Strong experience in molecular and cellular biology techniques applied to the development of physiologically relevant cellular assays to characterise compound mode of action.
• A practical understanding of a wide range of cellular assay methods and technologies and how they can be utilised.
• Expertise in mammalian cell culture and cloning, stable cell line generation, gene expression and knockdown
• Domain knowledge of mechanisms of disease biology in either oncology, immunology and/or CNS disease.
• Evidence of significant scientific productivity and impact through your own personal contributions to projects
• Demonstrated excellence in independently planning and executing experiments as well as critical data analysis skills.
• Strong interpersonal communication and effective team working with a ‘can-do’ approach to problem solving.
• Excellent organisational and self-motivational skills, with track record of prioritising work and keeping to deadlines
  

Experience in the following areas would be preferred but not essential:

Familiarity with biology of ubiquitin-proteasome system or previous experience characterising Targeted Protein Degradation-based agents.

More about Amphista

Amphista’s approaches use completely novel mechanisms to build on all the advantages of TPD while directly addressing the emerging limitations of existing TPD strategies to expand the utility of the field. In particular, we have shown our approach has the potential to be superior to all other TPD approaches (PROTACs, molecular glues etc) through our unique novel mechanisms giving expanded scope, improved druglike properties and reduced tumour resistance potential. We have a range of projects in the discovery phase, initially focused on oncology with potential to expand into other therapy areas including CNS disease & immunology. Amphista R&D is based Cambridge, UK from where we also work with a wide range of global collaborators and CROs.

The Amphista team contains a wide range of experienced drug discovery experts across both biology and chemistry disciplines, creating the ideal learning environment to advance your scientific career development quickly. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing and dynamic company operating at the cutting edge of protein degradation-based drug discovery to develop first-in-class medicines to treat cancer and other areas of high unmet medical need.

Please note we are not able to offer visa sponsorship for this role.