Senior Scientist - Antibody Engineering

The Large Molecule Discovery (LMD) department within GSK is dedicated to the discovery of innovative biopharmaceutical medicines. This department encompasses several complementary functions that focus on the progression of a portfolio of biopharmaceuticals, from initial antibody discovery, expression, and characterization to molecular engineering, biological, and physicochemical profiling. Within LMD, the Molecular Design and Engineering (MDE) group is responsible for antibody engineering and developability profiling before candidate selection, with the aim of continuously improving molecule quality and transforming discovered leads into therapeutics.

We are currently in search of a diligent and motivated scientist to join the Antibody Engineering team within MDE. The role will be equally divided between lab work and computational/data analysis. The responsibilities will include working with matrix program teams, identifying risks and liabilities to early-stage biologics using predictive models and sequence analysis, designing de-risked and more developable variants, and executing molecular biology work packages (such as cloning, DNA upscaling) to generate plasmids for expression. These activities will primarily focus on the delivery of more developable molecule variants. We are constantly evolving by implementing cutting-edge data and automation technologies. The new team member will strengthen computational capabilities of the team and will contribute to the development and deployment of new models for predicting antibody properties and designing more developable variants.

Key responsibilities:

• Analysing antibody sequences & structures. Interpreting data from predictive models to identify potential liabilities and to design de-risked variants.
• Providing strategic recommendations for molecule engineering, humanization, and de-risking to program teams.
• Developing and exploring innovative engineering strategies with the aim of creating evolutionarily plausible variants with strong developability profiles.
• Cloning antibodies, bispecifics, and other advanced formats into expression vectors, followed by sequencing and upscaling the generated plasmids.

Basic Qualifications & Skills:

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Graduate or postgraduate degree in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, or a related discipline.
• A strong interest and experience in applying AI to protein sequence, structure, and experimental data, particularly in the context of drug/biologic design and engineering.
• Experience in protein/antibody modelling and interpretation of the structure data
• Experience in developing scripts and applications to automate data analysis to support drug discovery
• Basic skills in molecular biology, protein design and engineering, DNA cloning, preparation, upscaling, and analysis of sequencing results.
• Ability to quickly adapt to new scientific areas and work collaboratively across teams.

Preferred Qualifications & Skills:

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Established experience in antibody discovery and/or design, with a broad scientific understanding of the relationship between antibody sequence/structure and function.
• Basic experience or knowledge about bispecifics and other advanced antibody formats.

Closing Date for Applications: 16th October 2024

Please take a copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available post closure of the advert.

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Thank you for your interest in this opportunity!

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organisation where people can thrive. We prevent and treat disease with vaccines, specialty and general medicines. We focus on the science of the immune system and the use of new platform and data technologies, investing in four core therapeutic areas (infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/ immunology and oncology).

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