There is a focus on providing their employees with a rich and rewarding work life, developing their skills sets and supporting their own personal aspirations. The Associate Scientist will be located at their modern site in Oxford which offers good transport links and parking opportunities.
On offer for Associate Scientist is a competitive salary up to £28,000 depending on experience + benefits. As well as an exciting opportunity to contribute to the successful expansion of the novel platform developed at the company, and significant training and support in multiple areas of biological production and characterisation will be provided.
Role overview:
The Associate Scientist will be involved in a range of internal platform development and commercial projects, predominantly focused on carrying out various analytical assays for gene and cell therapy products. The Associate Scientist will primarily focus on quantitative and qualitative analysis of viral vector samples from a variety of process stages as well as assay development and optimisation. The role would focus on supporting commercial project with exposure to other areas of process development through R&D projects. The role would also provide support for lab maintenance (cleaning and stock management), quality management (recording results and updating forms and SOPs), communication (summarising and presenting work). Depending on the candidates background the role may be tailored further towards supporting a wider variety of activities within upstream production and downstream purification.
Key responsibilities:
- Work closely with Scientist/ Senior Scientist colleagues to define objectives, and key support required for lab functions.
- Titration and quality analysis of viral vector material within planned timeframe of commercial projects
- Providing experimental results analysis and project summaries
- With guidance and under supervision, contributing to the design and execution of R&D experiments
- Complying with the company’s Quality Management Systems and contributing to improvements (e.g. writing SOPs)
- Maintaining laboratory cleanliness to company standards, ensure laboratory equipment maintenance, safe working practices and general housekeeping.
- Work within the team and contribute to smooth operations and communication; co-ordinate activities with colleagues and management.
- Presenting technical information, including analysis/results of experiments, to technical and non-technical audiences, both inside and outside the company
- Support other areas of Process Development as required with flexibility for additional training.
Essential skillset:
- Minimum BSc in relevant scientific discipline (biology, chemistry), with relevant laboratory experience (higher education qualifications with laboratory experience also considered)
- Ability to work in a laboratory independently and as part of a team on multiple projects, following established protocols, SOPs and safety procedures.
- Practical experience of some or all techniques used in biopharmaceutical analysis (aseptic handling, mammalian cell culture (suspension and adherent), qPCR, ELISA, flow cytometry, microscopy). qPCR and cell transduction assays are likely to be of particular importance within the role.
- Excellent attention to details, good time management, communication, teamwork and numeracy skills
- Experience with accurate and diligent documentation of work, reagent preparation and sample tracking, preferably within an electronic system (ELN/LIMS)
- Basic proficiency in MS office package (Excel, Word). Intermediate or advanced proficiency advantageous
Desirable skillset:
- Understanding of biological systems and production, preferably based on viral vector production.
- Experience in handling viral vectors (Lentivirus, AAV and/or Adenovirus)
- Experience working in a biopharmaceutical research or manufacturing environment.
- Advanced computing and/or data analysis skills (e.g., Design of Experiments, R, Advanced MS Excel skills, comparative statistics)
- Experience working within controlled quality management system (e.g., ISO 9001, GxP)
- Dedication, enthusiastic and ambitious approach to scientific research and biopharmaceutical production