Postdoctoral Fellow

MSD • Lower Gwynedd Township, PA

6d • $82,000 - $92,000

About The Position

Our Research Laboratories’ Postdoctoral Research Fellow Program combines the scientific rigor and independence of academic research with the resources, expertise, and collaborative environment of a leading biopharmaceutical organization. Postdoctoral fellows work with experienced scientists, develop meaningful scientific networks, and generate research intended for publication and presentation to the external scientific community. The Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics, Metabolism & Bioanalytics (PDMB) organization within our company's Research Laboratories is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellow to lead an innovative research project examining the molecular, biological, and analytical factors that influence viral infectivity and neutralization measurements across virus-particle platforms. The fellow will establish and characterize matched neutralization assays based on live wild-type virus, reporter virus particles, and pseudovirus approaches. The research will investigate why neutralization results may differ among platforms and virus preparations, with particular emphasis on virion maturity, particle composition, viral entry pathways, assay conditions, and data-analysis methods. The fellow will apply Design of Experiments (DOE), quantitative data analysis, and fit-for-purpose bioanalytical characterization to generate a rigorous cross-platform comparison. The resulting mechanistic insights will support development of a biology-anchored framework for selecting and interpreting neutralization assay platforms. The project is designed to explore how the resulting scientific principles may inform neutralization-assay strategies for other viral systems and vaccine research areas. This is an opportunity to conduct original, publication-focused research while developing scientific independence, strategic experimental thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and strong written and oral communication skills. The fellow will receive structured mentorship, regular scientific and career-development feedback, and support for manuscripts, abstracts, posters, and external scientific presentations.

Requirements

• Must currently hold a PhD OR Receive a Ph.D. no later than spring 2027
• Ph.D. in Virology, Viral Immunology, Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biomedical Sciences, or a related biological discipline.
• Ability to independently design, execute, troubleshoot, and interpret rigorous scientific experiments.
• Strong understanding of experimental design and statistical analysis of complex biological datasets, including evaluation of variability, sources of discordance, and development of mechanistic hypotheses.
• Research experience in virology, viral immunology, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with mammalian cell culture and cell-based viral, infectivity, functional antibody, or neutralization assays.
• Strong scientific documentation skills, including preparation of methods, protocols, technical reports, and research records.
• Evidence of scientific productivity through publications, presentations, abstracts, or similar research outputs.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate effectively within multidisciplinary teams.
• Commitment to laboratory safety, biosafety, training, and documentation requirements.
• Strong interest in publishing research and presenting at scientific meetings.
• Ability to translate experimental findings into mechanistic insights, analytical recommendations, and publication-quality scientific communications.

Nice To Haves

• Experience developing, optimizing, or characterizing virus neutralization or infectivity assays.
• Experience with one or more of the following: infectious/live-virus assays, reporter virus particles, recombinant viral particles, pseudovirus systems, or other surrogate-virus platforms.
• Experience applying Design of Experiments, multifactorial experimental design, response-surface methods, or related statistical optimization approaches.
• Proficiency with one or more scientific data-analysis environments, such as R, Python, JMP, Prism, or comparable statistical and visualization tools.
• Experience with high-throughput, automated, or imaging-based cell-assay workflows.

Responsibilities

• Develop and characterize matched dengue neutralization assays using live virus, reporter virus particles, and pseudovirus platforms.
• Apply systematic DOE approaches to evaluate critical assay parameters and their impact on performance.
• Perform fit-for-purpose assay characterization, including robustness, precision, sensitivity, reproducibility, and comparability assessments.
• Investigate biological and analytical drivers of platform differences, including virion maturity, particle heterogeneity, viral entry, assay format, reagent attributes, and endpoint calculations.
• Conduct mechanistic studies to distinguish biological from analytical and operational sources of variability.
• Generate cross-platform datasets and apply statistical methods for data quality assessment, concordance analysis, visualization, and interpretation.
• Integrate findings into a decision framework supporting biologically informed selection of viral neutralization platforms.
• Assess whether observations from dengue studies may inform broader viral vaccine research.
• Maintain rigorous experimental records and prepare protocols, methods, technical reports, and supporting documentation.
• Collaborate across virology, immunology, bioanalytics, statistics, automation, and vaccine research disciplines.
• Stay current with scientific literature and develop testable hypotheses that strengthen the research program.
• Communicate findings through internal forums, manuscripts, abstracts, posters, and scientific presentations.

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• paid holidays
• vacation
• compassionate and sick days
• annual bonus
• long-term incentive

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree