Molecular Cloning & Protein Engineering Scientist in London

Seeking a highly motivated scientist to lead the engineering and development of next-generation programmable gene-editing therapeutics.

This is a hands‑on laboratory role focused on designing, building, and optimizing CRISPR-based therapeutic constructs for precision medicine applications.

The successful candidate will play a key role in advancing novel therapeutic candidates from concept through preclinical development.

Responsibilities

• Design, engineer, and optimize Cas-based therapeutic constructs, including conditional and programmable protein architectures.
• Engineer proteins for enhanced specificity, activity, and control using rational design, structure-guided engineering, and directed evolution.
• Expand the modularity of the platform by developing constructs targeting additional disease-relevant genes.
• Design, clone, and validate guide RNA libraries for specificity and off-target profiling assays (e. g., ONE-seq, CHANGE-seq, or related technologies).
• Design, execute, and analyze rapid design-build-test cycles to improve construct performance.
• Collaborate across molecular biology, protein engineering, computational biology, and translational research teams to advance therapeutic programs.
• Required Qualifications
• M. S. or Ph. D. in Molecular Biology, Genetics, Bioengineering, Protein Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of hands‑on experience in molecular cloning using techniques such as Gibson Assembly, Golden Gate Assembly, and Gateway cloning.
• Extensive experience designing and engineering CRISPR/Cas constructs, including development of novel protein functions through directed evolution or rational engineering.
• Strong expertise in mammalian and bacterial expression vector design, construct optimization, and stable cell line generation.
• Demonstrated ability to independently execute rapid iterative construct design and optimization.
• Experience developing and utilizing fluorescent and/or luminescent reporter assay systems.
• Strong structural biology and wet‑lab expertise, with experience applying structural insights to protein engineering challenges.
• Demonstrated ownership of engineering protein function, rather than solely supporting execution of established workflows.
• Computational experience supporting protein or CRISPR engineering, including sequence analysis, structural modeling, guide RNA design, scripting, or bioinformatics.
• Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with inducible or conditional protein systems.
• Familiarity with base editing, prime editing, or other next‑generation genome editing technologies.
• Experience with NGS library preparation and sequencing-based screening workflows.
• Background in structural biology, protein biochemistry, or computational protein engineering.
• Experience working in fast‑paced biotechnology or therapeutic discovery environments.
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