Research Associate II

Job Description

Job Summary:

• We are looking for a candidate with experience in AAV and/or non-viral purification development, scale-up and manufacturing, and technology transfer.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support to develop, design and conduct viral vector purification experiments and evaluate new technologies to increase product yield and process understanding.
• Develop, maintain and demonstrate advanced knowledge of principals and techniques in column chromatography and other areas of downstream purification.
• Maintain industry knowledge and awareness of new and relevant technologies, and be willing to publish findings and to speak both internally and externally as industry leaders.
• Lead / support development of study design, optimization of purification process conditions, media screening and perform troubleshooting experiments and communicate findings with appropriate working groups.
• Perform data analyses, contribute to technical reports and internal/external presentations.
• Support scale-up activities to implement a manufacturing process based on applied DSP knowledge.
• Communicate effectively with internal and external teams, e.g. CDMOs for tech transfer activities.
• Contribute to manuscript and patent writing for external publications and patent applications, respectively.
• Self-motivated and display sound technical judgement.
• Build a culture of support and collaboration among colleagues.

Basic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in biological sciences or related discipline, or Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 2 years of relevant experience.
• Strong grasp of chromatography principles and modalities.
• Experience with process technology transfers and performing gap analyses and risk assessments.
• Expertise in technical report writing.
• Ability to learn and perform viral vector analyses using new tools and techniques.
• Exhibits good laboratory practices including writing neat laboratory procedures in lab notebooks.

Experience, knowledge and understanding of purification technologies and operations such as:

• Depth filtration
• AKTA or automated protein purification chromatography
• Tangential flow filtration or UF/DF
• Virus clearance and inactivation
• Filtration unit operations at various scales

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with purification of viral vectors.
• Knowledge of basic analytical tools such as spectrophotometry, ELISA, HPLC, and SDS-PAGE.
• Basic understanding of the principles of Quality by Design and ability to apply DOE to downstream development.
• Understanding of viral clearance study design and execution strategy preferred.
• Experience with large-scale unit operations.
• Ability to work in Biosafety Level 2, follow safe lab procedures and maintain good laboratory practices (GLPs).
• Ability to work under minimal supervision and function within a collaborative, team-oriented environment.
• Excellent organization and communication skills.
• Ability to build and nurture cross-functional relationships.
• Ability to communicate and represent group in diverse, multi-functional meetings.
• Ability to stand and work with lab bench equipment in laboratory.