Lentiviral Vector Analytical Scientist

Description: 

Lentitek is addressing one of the largest challenges that developers face when trying to get their life changing next generation medicines to the patient. Our technology can help developers and manufacturers by increasing the manufacturability and quality of lentivirus, one of the key components of these therapies. With operations in Edinburgh and London, Lentitek are a dynamic company in the burgeoning biotechnology sector within the UK. Having recently closed an investment of £700k, Lentitek has raised £1.5 million in grant and equity funding to date.

While we continue to build out supporting data for the solution, we are also looking to gain insights from early adopters in this rapidly growing and dynamic market. As such Lentitek is building exciting collaborations across industry and universities. Our company is built on the core values of collaboration, development, challenge and fairness, where every day presents an opportunity to learn and grow.

What you will do:

As we begin to take on customer work Lentitek needs addition support both for these collaborations as well as building out our testing capabilities. We are therefore seeking a dynamic candidate who can help us build our downstream and analytical capabilities within our lentivirus production laboratory. 

The successful candidate will be responsible for establishing a full set of analytical assays for lentivirus quality and function; including cell based functional assays to assess CAR performance in immortalised and primary cells. To complement our strong vector development team, a working knowledge of industrial scale vector purification would be advantageous.

Alongside the delivery of customer projects, the candidate will also support our Innovate UK funded project on in vivo CAR-T. There will also be opportunity to help us further develop and improve the Lentitek technology, exploring both enhancements and parallel opportunities for the core technology. 

Infrequent national and international travel is expected with this role to attend conferences and to meet and work with potential customers.

What you will bring:

The candidate must have a thorough understanding of the manufacturing process for lentivirus, and in particular have excellent knowledge of analytical and functional testing of viral vectors. This could be demonstrated either through 3+ years of academic or industrial experience working directly with lentivirus analytics and testing. 

The purification and handling of primary tissue, specifically PBMCs is highly desirable, as the candidate will need to functionally test lentivirus with, for example with T-cell killing assays. In addition, it is desirable that the candidate has experience in the downstream purification process for viral vectors, with techniques such as HPLC, TFF and ultracentrifugation. 

The candidate will also be interacting with customers, and therefore must demonstrate great collaboration and communication skills. 

Essential Role Requisites

•              BSc/MSc qualification in genetics or biotechnology related subject

•              3+ years lentivirus characterisation experience

•              Cell based assay development for viral vector functional characterisation

•              Analytical development for viral vector testing

•              Great communication and presentation skills

•              Ability to challenge assumptions

•              Motivated to make a difference

•              Comfortable with a challenge and ability to adapt to change

Desired Role Requisites

•              Industrial experience

•              Large scale/GMP quality purification of viral vectors

•              Primary tissue (PBMC) purification and handling

•              Proven record of successful project management

•              PhD or equivalent level of experience related to Cell and Gene Therapies

What we will offer:

In addition to a salary of up to £45,000 (depending on experience) and pension contributions of 5%, the role will offer the successful candidate a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the growth of an exciting biotech company in the UK. To reflect the high level of contribution required in building the business, ownership by way of share options will form part of a long term incentive scheme.

Lentitek is also committed to the growth and development of everybody in the organisation. We are still developing our policies on this, but you can help shape that development.

Our commitment to creating a culture of diversity & inclusion:

Lentitek will only grow through collaboration, collaboration both externally with customers and other partners, as well as with internal teams. But collaboration can only thrive and deliver amazing results if there is real trust and equity between all parties. We are therefore strongly committed to building and maintaining trust through fairness and equality. 

We are also an organisation that is committed to challenging assumptions – both externally and more importantly internally. However, to allow challenge to happen there must be a diversity of opinions and the confidence to air those opinions. We are therefore fully committed to bringing diversity into our organisation that will allow for challenge to happen.

Application Process

If you think the above describes you and believe you can make a difference in the provision of next generation cell and gene therapies, then we are keen to hear from you! 

Successful candidates will be invited for a first round of online interviews, followed by in person interviews in either central London or Edinburgh.

The role is open and can be filled as early as 1st April 2025, however we are prepared to wait for the right candidate. Application closing date will be on Friday 20th April 2025.