Senior Scientist - Protein Engineering

Job Description

CK Group are working in partnership with Avacta to recruit a Senior Protein Scientist to be based at their state of the art facilities in West London on a permanent basis.About Avacta:Avacta are a clinical stage oncology drug company.Their aim is to utilise their innovative therapeutic and diagnostic platforms to treat cancer and other diseases to provide benefit to patients, including those who do not respond to existing therapies.They have their own drug discovery and diagnostics development laboratories, whilst also collaborating with partners in academia and industry. Avactas Therapeutics division has recently relocated to Scale Space in London, a new hub of technology and life scienceorganisations.Their Affimer biotherapeutics platform is a novel biotherapeutic based on a naturally occurring human protein. This can be engineered to bind target proteins with antibody-like affinity and specificity, with the benefit of engineering additional specificitiesand payload delivery.Their pre|CISION tumour targeted chemotherapy is undergoing clinical trials. This targeted chemotherapy platform releases active drug only in the tumour, thereby limiting systemic exposure of potentially toxic anti-cancer treatments.Innovation and collaboration is key for Avacta, and they are looking to expand the team with people who can further drive our exciting programmes forward.About the role:You will be responsible for:

• Maintaining and applying expertise in molecular biology, library design, protein engineering and protein expression to deliver clinical candidates
• Developing and executing strategies to deliver complex biologics including antibodies, antibody fragments and related molecules, and fusion proteins. You will also deliver and quality control a range of other proteins to support programme delivery
• Maintaining expertise in the subject area to support library generation, protein engineering, protein production and QC analysis. You will be able to work independently and communicate effectively across disciplines
• Collaborating with external partners and presenting work at both internal meetings and to external collaborating partners
• Your work will be within multi-disciplinary teams: you should have the flexibility to work on multiple programmes and different functional activities and resilience to move between these are key.

About you:To be considered for the position you should have the following skills and experience:

• PhD (or equivalent experience) with relevant lab-based experience
• Strong technical skills in molecular biology with a good understanding of protein structure.
• Experience in protein engineering to successfully express proteins destined for biophysical studies and ultimately, clinical candidates
• Knowledge of in-vitro display platforms and library design (generation and screening), including alternative scaffolds
• Experience of multi-specific antibodies, fusion proteins and other next-generation biologics to support pipeline delivery
• Experience of engineering protein stability and affinity, along with knowledge of CMC requirements for antibodies or alternative scaffolds.

The benefits:Avacta offer an excellent range of benefits, including:

• Private medical cover
• Annual performance related bonus of up to 10% of salary
• Life assurance
• Company pension scheme
• 25 Days annual leave + Bank Holidays
• Share Incentive Plans

Apply:It is essential that applicants hold entitlement to work in the UK. Please quote job reference53831 in all correspondence.