Immunologist - Senior Scientist

Allergan Aesthetics; Oxford; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job description

Company Description

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.

Job Description

About DJS AbbVie:

At DJS AbbVie we aspire to create new medicines to improve the lives of patients with serious immunological diseases and cancers. We achieve this by using our proprietary HEPTAD platform to deliver therapeutic antibodies against complex and intractable membrane protein targets. As a biotech company within AbbVie, we combine the agility, team spirit and scientific focus of a biotech with the reach and vision of a global pharmaceutical company. We have discovered a number of drug candidates to date, and continue to grow our exciting portfolio.

About the role:

This role will span mechanistic biology, pharmacology, target selection and antibody discovery. The primary focus will be to develop an understanding of the background biology and signal transduction pathways of the proteins targeted by candidate antibodies, and then design and conduct experiments using in vitro systems to dissect the pharmacology and mechanism of action of the candidate antibodies. This will inform disease positioning, rational drug combinations, dose selection, clinical biomarker selection, and future target selection. In line with this, the role will connect back to our discovery group, inputting into the identification of targets for new discovery programs.

The successful applicant should have a track record of immunology research in industry or academia. They will be an experimentalist, skilled at interpreting insights from the literature and translating them into actionable experiments. Day-to-day, they will work collaboratively in project teams who are focused on different programs at different stages of the R&D process. They should therefore be keen to get involved with all aspects of research at DJS. This will necessitate clear communication and excellent time management. Alongside organisational skills, however, they must enjoy adapting to changing priorities in a fast-paced environment.

At DJS, we want to foster innovative scientists performing drug-discovery led by cutting-edge science. In this role, the successful candidate will develop knowledge across mechanistic biology, pharmacology, and early discovery with visibility across our portfolio of early discovery through to clinical-stage drug candidates. As such this role will bring many career development opportunities. These are extended further by our unique position within AbbVie, which allows access into a much broader, world-leading drug development pipeline and learnings about broader pharmaceutical business.

Successful applicant's key responsibilities:

• Bringing energy, enthusiasm and positivity to the company
• Engaging with the literature to build deep understanding of target biology
• Establish and implement in vitro experimental models for assessing antibody pharmacology and mode of action
• Perform critical laboratory experiments and analysis to develop and extend existing methodologies
• Mentor junior scientists from the benchside in new and novel immunological techniques and methodologies
• Keeping up-to-date with latest developments in immunology by reading literature and attending conferences
• Contribute ideas and suggestions to all DJS programs
• Gather, analyse and present data from a variety of sources to the wider team and organization
• Critical and impartial review of self- and peer-generated laboratory data to create tangible actions
• Maintenance of laboratory experimental records

Qualifications

Applicant’s required attributes:

• A PhD in Immunology or a related field or equivalent level of experience
• Have a passion for immunology and translational biology
• Enthusiasm and commitment to drug development research
• Willingness to work with human tissue samples under an HTA
• Proven expertise and experience in:
• Establishing in vitro models for inflammatory disorders
• Secondary ex vivo cell-based assays (such as, for example, FACS/cell sorting, imaging, ELISA/MSD, Western-blot and omics-based approaches such as RNA-seq)
• Statistical analysis, power calculations and experimental design
• Establishing primary cell assays and developing them for reproducible high throughput screening

Applicants desirable characteristics:

• Working with preclinical models for therapeutic antibody development
• Have previously held a UK PIL licence (or equivalent) with experience in executing in vivo studies in pre-clinical models
• Building and maintaining collaborative networks across multiple organizations
• Working within an industrial setting on a drug development program
• Working with organoids or organ on a chip models
• Working with contract research organisations
• Antibody binding techniques; ELISA, FACS, SPR etc.
• Evidence of excellent organizational and interpersonal skills including:
• work both independently and as part of a team
• Ability to work efficiently with strong attention to detail
• Ability to build effective working relationships within large organizations and across different time zones
• Ability to work flexible hours when required
• Proven written and oral communicative ability
• Problem-solving skills
• Flexible and adaptable with an all-inclusive goal-orientated mindset
• Working under a Human Tissue Authority license

Additional Information

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion. It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

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