Senior Computational Biologist

Job Description

Data science & bioinformatics for drug discovery. Structural biology, biotech home based, antigen, vaccine Your new companyOff the back of a significant seed funding round, this exciting and innovative biotech are increasing their team to help develop the next generation of universal vaccines. Theyre hiring multiple positions as they move their portfolio through preclinical discoveryand are looking to add another bioinformatician to their team to take the lead on a number of projects.With world leading scientists helping advise their research, and significant development plans, therell be plenty of opportunities for career progression and development.Your new roleYou will be leading projects related to the discovery and development of new cutting-edge vaccines, primarily through the analysis and interpretation of structural biology and protein data sets to identify, design and validate antigens.This is a high-level hands-on role working as part of a cross-functional team, interacting closely with biologists, computer scientists and senior/C-Level stakeholders.The position offers good scope for flexible working and can even be fully remote.Reporting directly to the CTO and CEO, you will lead projects focused on developing their discovery platform; youll also have a significant chance to feed into the companys research strategies. Youll be a key player in determining how the department shouldgrow and have the potential to take on people management as the company continues to expand.Major responsibilities will include:

• Act as a subject matter expert for structural virology / biology research questions
• Project management and research leadership, including prioritising and setting timelines for multiple projects
• Modelling protein-protein interactions
• Analyse and design bespoke protein structures
• Help design and optimise antigen design for variant-proof vaccine development
• Identify new tools and/or databases that can be used to further develop the companys research and discovery platform
• Develop / optimise algorithms (although there will be support on the implementation/programming of these)
• Work closely with cross-functional team members, eg biologists and computer scientists

For more senior / experienced candidates there is significant scope to drive the computational research strategy.What youll need to succeedAs well as strong communication, organisational and time management skills, you should have:

• An MSc / PhD (or equivalent experience) in a subject such as Bioinformatics, Virology, Computational Biology or similar
• Good hands-on programming skills, preferably in R or Python, but other languages such as Julia, Ruby, Perl or C++ are also acceptable
• A problem solving attitude and be willing to bring new ideas to the table
• The ability to work to tight deadlines / in a fast-paced environment
• A track record of pipeline, tool, model or algorithm development
• A strong understanding of structural biology (preferably structural virology) is essential

Experience with any of the following is not necessary but would be an advantage:

• Epitope grafting, eg to design chimeric proteins, or designing epitope scaffolds
• Stabilising conformational epitopes or enhancing antigen stability
• Designing protein scaffolds or novel protein structures
• Modelling protein-protein interactions
• Using commercially available structural biology tools
• Optimising and/or mapping antibody-antigen coupling
• Drug discovery or development within the pharmaceutical / biotech industry
• Vaccine development
• Machine Learning skills

What youll get in returnThe chance to work on a range of cutting edge projects for a really exciting company, as well as the ability to directly influence the discovery and development of vaccines that will make a real difference to patients the world over.Youll be joining the company as they go into their next growth phase, so there will be chances to further develop your skills and career and for more senior people the ability to directly influence research strategy.Theres also the potential for equity in the company.What you need to do nowIf youre interested in this role, click apply now to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call me on .If this job isnt quite right for you but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion on your career, especially as there are a number of other bioinformatics, data science and statistics positions available.Keywords: bioinformatics, bioinformatician, data, science, statistics, statistical, biomarker, discovery, genetics, alphafold, epitope,scaffold, protein, genomics, structural, biology, virology, amino, acid, evolution, modelling, vaccine, antigen, viral, pathogen,NGS, PCR, RNA, single, cell, scRNA, sequence, machine, learning, programmer, programming, scientist, diagnostics, molecular, python, R, C, Bash, platform, project, manager, developer, tool, pipeline, computational

Keyskills :
sciencedatabiologystructuralmodellingstatisticsacidgeneticsbioinformaticsproteinvirologyvaccinestatisticalgenomicsevolutiondiscoveryscaffoldviralbiomarkerbioinformaticianantigenaminoalphafoldepitope