Senior Scientist - Cellular Biology
- Stevenage, Hertfordshire (GBR)
- £25 - £29 Per Hour
- 12 Months
- Start date: ASAP
- Ref: GSK0JP00093636
- gene expression
- research
- immunoassays
- experimental design
- phd
- datasets
- validation
- graduate
- written and verbal
Senior Scientist: Cell Biology & Immunology
Stevenage
Initial 12 month contract
pay rate up to £29 per hour via Umbrella inside IR35
About us:
GlaxoSmithKline is a world leading research-based pharmaceutical company that combines both individual talent and technical resources to support our mission to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
About the role:
We have an exciting opportunity available for a bright and innovative cell biologist to join GSK’s Immunology Research Unit in Stevenage. You will be working in a stimulating and fast-moving environment, where we put great emphasis on high quality science. You will join a multidisciplinary team focused on identifying future new medicines that target myeloid cells and cell-to-cell interactions.
Our role is to identify novel genetically-associated targets for immune-mediated diseases through disease phenotyping, integration of genetic and genomic datasets (including via our collaboration with 23andMe), to validate these targets using disease- and mechanism-relevant in vitro cell and tissue-based assays, and to progress modulators of these targets through lead optimisation and into early clinical development.
As a senior scientist-level biologist, you will have the opportunity to contribute to our target validation, lead optimisation and disease expansion efforts. This could involve contributing to ongoing efforts to establish in vitro cellular and tissue-based assay systems that model immune cell interactions with other cell types, or applying such assay systems to the validation and progression of our growing portfolio of novel genetically-associated targets.
The selected candidate will be expected to have excellent communication and organizational skills, present results at team and project meetings, and maintain accurate records.
Key Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
• As a cell biologist contributing to the validation, characterisation and progression of novel targets and therapeutics to treat diseases associated with dysregulated immune responses.
• Establishing novel primary immune cell co-culture assay systems that mirror key aspects of disease for use in target validation and progression of drug candidates.
• Provide in vitro biology evidence to support new clinical indications for drug candidates.
• Collaborating with key academic groups (or CROs) who can help further the programs or provide insight into the mechanism of action or therapeutic potential.
• Maintain an active knowledge of external developments in the field and adapting/initiating work plans (internally and externally) in response to emergent data.
• Representing the Research Unit at external meetings and authoring publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• Engagement and sharing expertise with wider Immunology Research Unit.
Why you?
Basic Qualifications:
We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:
• Science graduate with additional research experience ideally in industry or new PhD in Cell Biology or related discipline.
• Strong understanding of immune cell interactions in the tissue context gained through research experience.
• Experienced in cell and molecular biological or immunological techniques to characterise cell phenotype and support target validation e.g. gene expression analysis, immunocytochemistry, FACS and immunoassays.
• Comprehensive expertise in experimental design, execution, assay development and analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:
• Experienced and proficient in the establishment and functional characterisation of primary human cell co-culture models.
• Experience of early target discovery approaches and disease phenotyping.
• Experienced and proficient in computational analysis of large biological datasets.
