Research Scientist, Protein Sciences

Job Description Summary

Come help us discover innovative therapeutic breakthroughs for patients! We are seeking a passionate, curious, and collaborative protein scientist to join our Protein Sciences group, an interdisciplinary team that has expertise in protein chemistry, enzymology, biophysics, NMR, X-ray crystallography, and electron microscopy.

As a Protein Scientist, you will focus primarily on the production of proteins to enable structure-guided drug discovery for multiple disease areas. Your responsibilities will include designing protein constructs, carrying out expression in various cell systems, developing methodologies for purification, and protein characterization using biophysical and structural techniques. You will closely collaborate with colleagues within our group and across disease areas to tackle challenging drug discovery projects, contributing to the advancement of early-stage drug development.

Job Description

Internal Job Title: Research Scientist II

Position Location: Onsite, Cambridge, MA

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute protocols to generate high-quality protein reagents for small molecule screening, hit validation, and structural biology studies of protein-small molecule complexes.
• Design protein constructs based on literature and AI-based structure prediction tools.
• Protein expression in E. coli, mammalian and insect cell systems.
• Protein purification using various chromatography techniques and FPLC equipment.
• Collaborate with colleagues to characterize protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions using biophysical and structural biology techniques.
• Apply critical thinking to troubleshoot experiments and design new approaches.
• Maintain a high level of professional expertise through familiarity with scientific literature and accurate and detailed record keeping.
• Work both independently and collaboratively as part of multidisciplinary teams.
• Present and communicate results with protein science colleagues and project teams.

Role Requirements:

• BS or MS degree in biochemistry, life sciences, molecular biology or related field with at least 2 years of relevant research laboratory experience.
• Proven in-depth knowledge with hands-on experience in recombinant protein construct design and expression, including insect cell and mammalian expression systems.
• Proficiency in different protein purification techniques such as affinity, ion exchange, and gel filtration chromatography using FPLC or HPLC systems.
• Demonstrated critical thinking and troubleshooting ability when handling challenging proteins such as aggregated proteins, multicomponent complexes, or membrane proteins.
• Passionate about biomedical research and drug discovery. Motivated to learn new techniques in protein biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, and ability to work effectively in a matrix team environment.

Desirable Requirements:

• Experience in protein crystallography or cryo-EM, either directly or working closely with others.
• Experience in biophysical methods to characterize protein-protein or protein-ligand interactions (e.g. SPR, DSF, ITC, LC/MS).

Why Novartis: Our purpose is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives and our vision is to become the most valued and trusted medicines company in the world. How can we achieve this? With our people. It is our associates that drive us each day to reach our ambitions. Be a part of this mission and join us!

EEO Statement:

The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Accessibility and reasonable accommodations

The Novartis Group of Companies are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to us.reasonableaccommodations@novartis.com or call +1(877)395-2339 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.