POSITION SUMMARY
Amphista Therapeutics is a fast-growing Cambridge-based biotech and a leading Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) company. TPD is one of the hottest areas of drug discovery and our unique scientific approach to TPD, gives us a range of advantages over other therapeutic strategies .
We have completed an oversubscribed $53M funding round which was recently extended with investment by the Dementia Discovery fund. During 2022 we were delighted to announce two separate collaboration deals with Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck Healthcare which will allow us to grow and advance our therapeutic portfolio even faster. This excellent progress has been recognised Amphista named as a Fierce Biotech, Fierce15 winner for 2022 and numerous other awards.
W e are looking to expand our team and strengthen our expertise with a n innovative and highly motivated individual with strong experience in biochemical and biophysical characterisation of proteins and their complexes . The successful candidate will be leading activities to enable structural and biophysical understanding of our technology and the interaction with targets and the prote osome.
This role will include some laboratory work with a need to manage significant activities at partners and CROs. An ability to multitask and bring together these activities to deliver technical capabilities will be c ritical and you will be one of the key scientific experts within the team.
This role will suit candidates with experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team in a drug discovery setting. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing and dynamic biotech operating at the cutting edge of protein degradation-based drug discovery to develop first-in-class medicines to treat cancer and other areas of high unmet medical need.
Responsibilities
- You will take a technical lead on biophysical activities at Amphista , being the go - too expert on such matter s , supporting internal projects and work at CRO s.
- You will require an in-depth knowledge of biophysical techniques as you will be driv ing biophysical assay develop ment in-house and with CRO partners .
- Design and implement studies to enable a nalytical Protein characterisation ( e.g. SDS PAGE, DLS, NanoDSF , SEC-HPLC, Intact MS , S P R, MST etc ) .
- Working independently to drive collaboration with our CRO network in designing and executing experiments, analy s ing, interpreting, and presenting the data to the team .
- You will be communicating data and providing context to the data as a key expert to internal teams and collaborators to support platform and clinical programs with biophysical understanding of Amphista degraders.
- Keeping abreast of current literature on cutting edge techniques in the field of biomolecular sciences
Essential Education & Experience:
- PhD in Biochemistry, structural biology or biophysics or related field with at least 5 + years post-doctoral experience or equivalent hands-on experience .
- You will have expertise in molecular biophysics as demonstrated by publications, patents or exemplified by significant industrial experience in biotech, CRO or fast paced bio-pharma .
- You will have a broad understanding of biophysics and protein science with expertise using and analysing data from a range of biophysical and biochemical approaches to enable understanding of small molecule -protein and/or Protein-protein interactions ( e.g. including Mass-spectrometry, SPR, MST and related technologies ) .
- Experience with molecular biology techniques to enable biophysics and protein production, including cloning, nucleic acid extraction, cell line engineering, protein construct design, production, and purification .
- You will be highly self-motivated , used to prioritising and delivering to timelines .
- You will have experience with developing biophysics assays for protein-protein interactions and ideally an understanding of E3 Ligase biology .
- You will have experience in a multidisciplinary environment with an ability to communicate with to different scientific backgrounds as well as senior management.
Desirable Education & Experience:
- 5 + years indust rial experience developing and utilising biophysical assays
- Experience with structural biology techniques ( e.g. x-ray crystallography, cryo-EM) with small molecules .
- Experience with small molecule drug discovery.
- Experience with biochemical techniques such as Alp haLisa , NanoBRET etc
- Familiar i ty with protein modelling & design tools such as MOE or Rosetta
- Knowledge of protein degradation mechanisms and the biochemistry of ubiquitin ligases
What’s on offer
- Competitive Salary
- Discretionary Bonus
- Growth Shares
- Flexible Benefits
More about Amphista
Amphista’s approaches use completely novel mechanisms to build on all the advantages of TPD while directly addressing the emerging limitations of existing TPD strategies to expand the utility of the field. We have shown our approach has the potential to be superior to all other TPD approaches (PROTACs, molecular glues etc) improved druglike properties and reduced tumour resistance potential. We have a range of projects in the discovery phase, initially focused on oncology with potential to expand into other therapy areas including CNS disease & immunology.
Initially founded from the laboratory of Professor Alessio Ciulli (University of Dundee) our team comprises both academic and drug discovery pioneers of the TPD field and a growing R&D team focused on advancing a portfolio of medicines to the clinic using our proprietary next generation TPD technologies. We are continuing to grow and are looking for a key hire to expand our screening and assay teams.
The Amphista team comprises highly experienced drug discovery and TPD experts across both biology and chemistry disciplines, creating the ideal learning environment to advance your scientific career development quickly. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing and dynamic company operating at the cutting edge of protein degradation-based drug discovery to develop first-in-class medicines to treat cancer and other areas of high unmet medical need.