biochemist Cambridge, East of England, England
Job description
POSITION SUMMARY
Amphista Therapeutics is a fast-growing Cambridge-based biotech and the leading European Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) company. Our unique scientific approach to TPD, one of the hottest areas in modern drug discovery, gives us a range of advantages over other therapeutic strategies.
We have completed an oversubscribed $53M funding round which was recently extended with investment by the Dementia Discovery fund. During 2022 we were delighted to announce two separate collaboration deals with Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck Healthcare which will allow us to grow and advance our therapeutic portfolio even faster. This excellent progress has been recognised Amphista named as a Fierce Biotech, Fierce15 winner for 2022 and numerous other awards.
W e are looking to expand our team and strengthen our expertise with a n innovative and highly motivated individual with strong experience in biochemi stry , enzymology, and protein science . The successful candidate will be leading activities to enable structural and biophysical understanding of Amphista’s interaction with both targets and the prote osome.
This role will include a mixture of laboratory work and managing of external activities at partners and CROs. An ability to multitask and bring together these activities to deliver technical capabilities will be c ritical and you will be one of the key scientific experts within the team.
This role will suit candidates with experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team in a drug discovery setting. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing and dynamic biotech operating at the cutting edge of protein degradation-based drug discovery to develop first-in-class medicines to treat cancer and other areas of high unmet medical need.
Responsibilities
- You will take be a key technical lead on the development of biochemistry capabilities at Amphista , being the go-too expert on such matters .
- You will d esign , optimise and implement medium to high-throu gh put biochemical and biophysical assays to characterise degrader molecules either in house or with CRO partners.
- Lead the d esign and implement studies to enable biochemical understanding of degradation and targets of interest ( e.g. enzyme ki netics, inhibitor assays, DNA or target binding)
- Take an active role in supporting new target and ligandID providing biochemistry /protein scienc e experti se to enable novel ligand discovery .
- You will provide detailed analysis and interpretation of results to the wider team presenting the data to the wider team , collaboration partners and others .
- Keeping abreast of current literature on cutting edge techniques in the field of biomolecular sciences
Essential Education & Experience:
- PhD in Biology, Biochemistry, or related field with at least 2 + years post-doctoral ex perience or equivalent hands-on experience (senior) or 5 + years for Principal .
- You will have expertise in biochemistry, enzymology, protein science and /or biophysics as demonstrated by publications, patents or exemplified by significant industrial experience in biotech, CRO or fast paced bio-pharma .
- You will have a broad understanding and have the expertise to develop and analyse data from a range of in vitro and in cell biochemical assays to enable understanding of small molecule interactions with targets and the proteosome (e.g., NanoBRET , HTRF, AlphaLISA , enzyme kinetics, DNA binding ) .
- Understanding of molecular biology techniques to enable biochemical assays and protein production, including cloning, nucleic acid extraction, cell line engineering, protein construct design, production, and purification .
- You will be highly self-motivated , used to prioritising and delivering to timelines .
- You will have experience in a multidisciplinary environment with an ability to communicate with colleagues from different scientific backgrounds as well as senior management.
Desirable Education & Experience:
- 5 + years indust rial experience developing and utilising biochemical assays to develop small molecule therapeutics.
- Experience developing assays for protein-protein interaction , stability and kinetics
- Experience with structural biology techniques (x-ray crystallography, cryo-EM) or biophysical techniques such as SPR, MST etc).
- Experience with DNA repair and DNA binding proteins, such as helicases, nucleases and the DNA damage response .
- Experience of protein production, from cloning through to protein purification from cellular systems .
- Knowledge of protein degradation mechanisms and the biochemistry of ubiquitin ligases and biochemical assays to interrogate them.
What’s on offer
- Competitive Salary
- Discretionary Bonus
- Growth Shares
- Flexible Benefits
More about Amphista
Amphista’s approaches use completely novel mechanisms to build on all the advantages of TPD while directly addressing the emerging limitations of existing TPD strategies to expand the utility of the field. We have shown our approach has the potential to be superior to all other TPD approaches (PROTACs, molecular glues etc) improved druglike properties and reduced tumour resistance potential. We have a range of projects in the discovery phase, initially focused on oncology with potential to expand into other therapy areas including CNS disease & immunology.
Initially founded from the laboratory of Professor Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee) our team comprises both academic and drug discovery pioneers of the TPD field and a growing R&D team focused on advancing a portfolio of medicines to the clinic using our proprietary next generation TPD technologies. We are continuing to grow and are looking for a key hire to expand our screening and assay teams.
The Amphista team comprises highly experienced drug discovery and TPD experts across both biology and chemistry disciplines, creating the ideal learning environment to advance your scientific career development quickly. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing and dynamic company operating at the cutting edge of protein degradation-based drug discovery to develop first-in-class medicines to treat cancer and other areas of high unmet medical need.
