Senior/Lead Scientist, Translational Biology Immunology

CK Group are working in partnership with Nxera Pharma to recruit a Senior or Lead Scientist, Immunology, Translational Medicine, to join their Translational Biology Immunology and Metabolism group. The ideal candidate will have immunology expertise in inflammatory or autoimmune disease, and expertise in planning and executing preclinical target validation, and translational studies to support project deliverables.

Location: Granta Park, Cambridge.

About the company: Nxera Pharma (formerly Sosei Heptares) is a technology powered biopharma company, in pursuit of new speciality medicines to improve the lives of patients with unmet needs globally. Their pipeline is focused on addressing major unmet needs in some of the fastest-growing areas of medicine across CNS, GI and immunology, metabolic disorders and rare diseases, and leverages the power of their unique and industry leading GPCR-targeted structure-based drug discovery “NxWave” platform to provide a sustainable source of best- or first-in-class candidates. In Cambridge UK, Nxera have built outstanding capabilities across their platform, discovery and translational medicine teams, to advance multiple programs from pre-clinical through to early clinical development.

About the role: This is an exciting opportunity to work across diverse functional groups within Nxera Pharma and with external industrial and academic collaborators. The Translational Biology Team is a multidisciplinary team focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying human disease biology. The ideal candidate will be passionate about advancing novel therapies, and biomarker strategies for the treatment of immune disorders.

Responsibilities will include:

• Leading, executing and driving new Target Identification and Validation initiatives.
• Ensuring a robust translational framework is embedded early in the project lifetime to drive clear decision making in the clinic.
• Oversee the development and optimisation of functional immunology assays and/or in vivo PD studies at CROs.
• Depending on experience, may act as the Project Translational lead.

Skills and Experience:

• PhD with 2-3 years drug discovery or development experience or BSc with at least 5 years drug discovery or development experience in inflammatory or autoimmune therapeutic areas.
• Extensive experience in the planning, analysis, and interpretation of in vitro and in vivo target validation and translational studies.
• Proven technical knowledge in interrogating complex immunological mechanisms using a range of in vitro and ex vivo immunological assays (e.g. isolated leukocyte subset functional assays, flow cytometry, RNA expression analysis, biochemical signalling, MSD/ELISA, imaging).
• Strong track record in human and rodent primary immune cell assay development and optimisation.
• Direct experience in the experimental design and oversight of in vivo studies and good understanding of Home Office legislation governing in vivo research.
• Proven ability to work effectively in a fast paced, multidisciplinary matrix team environment.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills and ability to thrive in team setting.

Desirable:

• Hands-on experience in managing outsourced studies with CROs or academic partners.
• Project leadership experience within a biotech or pharma setting, alternatively if coming from an academic background experience working in industry collaborations would be beneficial.
• Interest in metabolic disease or experience working in this area.

What’s in it for you?

• State-of-the-art R&D centre located in the heart of the Cambridge science cluster.
• Competitive compensation package including discretionary cash bonuses.
• Eligible for grants of Restricted Stock Units.
• 26 days annual leave in addition to public holidays plus the option to purchase an additional 5 days each year.
• Employer contribution to pension.
• Private Medical Insurance for employees and family and a cash plan for dental and optical reimbursement.
• Health and wellbeing benefits including a subsidised individual gym membership.
• Income protection to cover long term absences due to ill health.
• Group Death in Service equal to 4x basic annual salary.

Apply: Please quote job reference 123 438 in all correspondence. If this position isn’t suitable but you are looking for a new role, or if you are interested in seeing what opportunities are out there, head over to our LinkedIn page (cka-group) and follow us to see our latest jobs and company news.