Associate Director/Principal Scientist, Immunology
Lycia Therapeutics
South San Francisco, CA, USA
Posted on Friday, September 16, 2022
Lycia Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company leveraging its lysosomal targeting chimera (LYTAC) platform from Founder and Chemistry Nobel Laureate 2022, Carolyn Bertozzi, to discover and develop first-in-class therapeutics that degrade extracellular and membrane-bound proteins. Lycia’s next generation degraders harness the cell’s endogenous lysosomal trafficking and degradation machinery with the potential to degrade targets previously considered to be intractable, across a spectrum of indications. After raising $105 million in capital in 2021, Lycia is advancing an internal pipeline of novel degraders and has entered a strategic collaboration with Eli Lilly to address key unmet medical needs. Lycia is headquartered in South San Francisco.
Lycia Therapeutics is seeking a self-motivated, organized, and technically skilled scientific leader to develop therapeutics based on a novel LYTAC protein degradation platform. The Associate Director/Principal Scientist will engage in innovative research in a dynamic team environment with a focus on immunology/translational biology efforts to support target validation and drug discovery efforts for advancement into human clinical trials. The ideal candidate will have broad scientific experience with demonstrated expertise in immunology and autoimmune diseases. A passion for translating basic scientific insights into generation of novel therapies is a must.
What You Will Do:
- Provide mechanistic and translational immunology insights based on deep understanding of literature and applied experiential knowledge to help guide our research programs into pre-clinical development and beyond
- Actively participate in or lead cross-functional project teams to advance pipeline projects
- Contribute and/or lead the design and implementation of translational research strategies for multiple immunology programs at Lycia
- Support external and internal evaluation of novel areas of disease/target biology to nominate therapeutic targets to Lycia’s portfolio
- Establish and conduct in vitro and ex vivo cellular immunoassays utilizing human plasma and/or PBMCs and blood/tissues from murine experiments to assess potential drug candidates
- Establish and implement immunogenicity assessment strategies to enable drug candidate selection, including in-house assay development and leveraging of external CROs.
- In collaboration with project teams and in vivo group, contribute to planning and/or implementation of in vivo and /or ex vivo studies to enable advancement of candidate LYTACs to clinical development
- Develop foundation for biomarker strategy, develop methodology, and facilitate progression from preclinical to clinical studies in collaboration with non-clinical & clinical development function
- Evaluate, interpret, and document scientific results and communicate findings and recommendations internally and with external collaborators
- Foster strategic external collaborations with thought leaders
Required:
- Ph.D. with focus in immunology, cell biology, and/or autoimmune diseases with 8+ years of relevant postdoctoral or industry experience
- Demonstrated knowledge of innate and acquired immunity and understanding of biological principles underpinning immunological diseases
- Experience with autoimmune and/or inflammatory disease and translation to clinical relevance
- Experience in deriving and maintaining physiologically-relevant primary immune cell models
- Track record in advancement of therapeutics in autoimmune/inflammatory disease
- Highly motivated and collaborative, with excellent interpersonal and communication skills
Preferred:
- Management experience with a commitment to career support of team members
- Demonstrated history of significant accomplishments via high impact publications
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status
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