• Must have a PhD and a minimum of 3+ years of postdoctoral experience
• Expertise in neurodegenerative and/or psychiatric disease biology and human genetics
• Stem cell technology experience: generation, characterization and quality control of iPSC and fibroblasts from patients
• Differentiation into multiple cell types from iPSC (e.g., dopamine neurons, cortical neurons microglia, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes)
• Disease modeling experience: engineering complex human disease models such as human co-cultures, microfluidic devices, or 3D cultures (organoids, spheroids, bioengineered tissues)
• Assay development experience: high content image analysis, MEA electrophysiology, gene expression, biochemistry, and molecular biology 
• Target validation experience: functional genomics approaches to study gene function (CRISPR, RNAi, lentivirus, etc.)Strategic, “systems-level,” and “outside-the-box” mindset

• Establish quality-controlled patient iPSC and fibroblast banks and differentiate neurons and other brain cell types
• Develop human brain disease models suitable for investigating target biology and drug discovery in ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, FTD and other neurodegenerative diseases
• Execute cell-based, biochemical, and molecular biology assays and profiling of human brain tissues to validate cell and disease models. 
• Engineer disease mutations, cell-type and pathway reporters in cells using genomic technologies
• Serve as the domain expert in stem cell and disease modeling technology
• Propose and execute new technologies and analysis capabilities 
• Manage external partners, academic institutions, CROs and consultants to support the goals of this Disease Modeling Core
• Work cross-functionally with computational biologists, target validation biologists, drug discovery experts and chemists to make strategic recommendations.
• Represent the company at conferences and publish in peer-reviewed journals.

*Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
*401(k) plan with employer matching for contributions
*Disability insurance, Life insurance, Dependant Care FSA and Healthcare FSA
*Unlimited paid time off
*Paid parental leave
*Access to free onsite fitness center
*Free snacks and lunch for employees who work onsite
*WFH stipend for employees who work remotely

The Target Identification and Exploratory Biology department is seeking creative and driven scientists of all levels to develop state-of-the-art in vitro models representing neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders using stem cell technology, organoids, 3D co-cultures and microfluidics. 

This bench scientist position plays a central role in the Verge Genomics pipeline, intersecting with target validation and drug discovery groups. With your expertise in stem cell and CRISPR technologies, you will generate different brain cell-types and engineer disease mutations, pathway reporters, and drug target constructs. You will profile quality, functionality and disease relevance of the in vitro brain models (e.g., imaging, single cell RNAseq, spatial transcriptomics, proteomics). You will benchmark the in vitro models by validating targets identified by Verge Genomics computational platform.