Scientist, Flow Sorting and Histology (Maternity Coverage) in Cambridge

Quotient Therapeutics Ltd is a privately held, early-stage company developing a novel genomics platform and therapeutics for diseases with a large unmet need. The company was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovative enterprise that conceives, creates, resources, and grows first-in-category life sciences companies.

We are seeking a motivated, enthusiastic biologist to support the development of Quotient’s cell identification and isolation platform. The role involves understanding the biology of various chronic and acute diseases, in particular the tissue structures and cell types involved, and developing protocols for the identification and isolation of cell populations from human tissue. The successful candidate will be a self-starter, able to thrive in a fast-paced, cross-functional team environment and have a clear passion for somatic genomics.

Key Responsibilities

• Be an active member of the assay development team, conducting bench-based experiments.
• Design or adapt tissue dissociation and cell/nuclei isolation methods.
• Develop new protocols for cell/nuclei isolation using fluorescent activated sorting techniques.
• Design and optimise new cell type specific antibody panels.
• Design or adapt imaging methods such as histological staining and immunofluorescence to identify tissue structures and cells of interest across a diverse range of human tissues.
• Engage external consultants to understand relevant tissue structures and appropriate identification methods.
• Liaise with contract research organisations (CROs) to outsource work as appropriate.
• Provide supervision and training for more junior lab members and/or technicians.
• Maintain compliance with regulatory requirements and quality standards, including the Human Tissue Act and COSHH.
• Maintain detailed experimental records and communicate key findings to stakeholders across the company, both in written and presentation formats.
• Collaborate closely with other team members across the organisation.

Key Skills and Experience

Essential

• BSc or MSc degree in biochemistry, molecular biology or microbiology, or a related field.
• A minimum of 5 years' hands-on experience of flow cytometry and cell sorting, including multispectral.
• Experience with optimisation of tissue dissociation methods.
• Experience in the design and validation of antibody panels for spectral flow cytometry.
• Proficiency in histological techniques including tissue preparation, staining and data analysis.
• Experience with optimisation of immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry protocols.
• Experience of working with human tissues under HTA regulations.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Use of laboratory information management systems (Benchling preferred).

Desirable

• Experience in the isolation and sorting of nuclei.
• Experience with next generation sequencing library preparation and other downstream molecular biology processing.
• Experience in a biotech or pharmaceutical industry setting.
• Experience working with digital productivity tools such as Notion, Trello or Jira.