Scientist, Preclinical Pharmacology - Neuroscience & Immunology

The businesses of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany•Billerica, MA

3d•$90,400 - $135,700

About The Position

EMD Serono is hiring a Scientist II, Preclinical Pharmacology to independently execute in vivo pharmacology studies supporting programs in immunology and inflammation, neuroscience, fertility, and other therapeutic areas. Reporting to the Principal Scientist / Lab Head, the role operates with a high degree of technical independence and contributes to translational PK/PD and biomarker strategies. The Scientist establishes and applies disease models, evaluates therapeutic approaches, supports biomarker and target-engagement assessments, and coordinates external study execution while maintaining scientific, protocol, quality, and animal-welfare standards. The role includes hands-on in vivo work such as dosing, sampling, tissue collection, necropsy, and relevant surgical procedures. It also involves assessing functional, behavioral, and physiological endpoints; conducting rodent PK sampling and biomarker assays; coordinating histology and molecular endpoint integration; managing CRO partnerships; and championing IACUC and AAALAC compliance. The position does not offer sponsorship for work authorization; external applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Requirements

PhD in Pharmacology, Neuroscience, Immunology, Physiology, or another life science discipline, with at least 4 years of drug discovery experience in a pharmaceutical or biotech industry setting; OR a master's degree in one of these disciplines with at least 6 years of relevant experience; OR a bachelor's degree in one of these disciplines with at least 8 years of relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with neurological or neurodegenerative disease models, such as dopaminergic lesion, alpha-synuclein, or neuroinflammation models.
Experience with advanced functional or behavioral assays relevant to at least one disease area, such as motor or cognitive assays for CNS or automated video tracking or home-cage monitoring platforms.
Significant experience with protein-based and molecular biomarker assays, such as Flow Cytometry, ELISA, MSD, cytokine/chemokine panels, target-engagement markers, Olink, or NULISA.
Expertise in at least one disease area: immunology and inflammation, neuroscience and neurodegeneration, fertility, endocrinology, or rare diseases.

Responsibilities

Establish, validate, optimize, and troubleshoot fit-for-purpose acute and chronic in vivo disease models to defined validation milestones and reproducibility criteria.
Build and apply immunological and/or neurological disease models to assess efficacy, target engagement, pharmacodynamic response, and translational relevance of novel therapeutic approaches.
Execute in vivo pharmacology studies, including dosing via IV, SC, IP, PO, ICV, and IT routes; blood and CSF sampling; tissue collection; and necropsy.
Perform and support surgical procedures relevant to pharmacology assays, including surgical models, ICV/IT administration, stereotaxic injections, surgical recovery monitoring, and clinical scoring, and define procedural and welfare standards.
Conduct standardized assessments of functional, behavioral, and physiological endpoints across preclinical disease models.
Support biomarker strategy execution, including fluid, tissue, molecular, inflammatory, and translatable biomarker readouts.
Manage CRO partnerships and external study execution to extend laboratory capacity and geographic reach while maintaining program timelines and scientific standards.
Champion IACUC and AAALAC compliance across the in vivo function.
Conduct rodent PK sampling, including plasma, tissue, and disease-area-relevant matrix collection, to support exposure and target-engagement assessments.
Execute target-engagement marker and cytokine/chemokine assays, and support histology/IHC coordination and molecular endpoint integration.