Scientist, Preclinical Pharmacology - Neuroscience & Immunology

Merck•Billerica, MA

About The Position

EMD Serono is hiring a Scientist II, Preclinical Pharmacology, reporting to the Principal Scientist / Lab Head. The role is accountable for independently executing in vivo pharmacology studies supporting programs across immunology and inflammation, neuroscience, fertility, and other therapeutic areas. It contributes to translational PK/PD and biomarker strategies and executes disease-model studies with a high degree of technical independence. The scientist establishes, validates, optimizes, and troubleshoots in vivo disease models; evaluates efficacy, target engagement, pharmacodynamic response, and translational relevance; and performs in vivo procedures and functional, behavioral, and physiological assessments. The role also supports biomarker and PK/PD work, coordinates external study execution through CRO partnerships, and champions IACUC and AAALAC compliance. This role does not offer work authorization sponsorship; external applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Requirements

PhD in Pharmacology, Neuroscience, Immunology, Physiology, or another life science discipline, with 4+ years of drug discovery experience in a pharmaceutical or biotech industry setting; OR master's degree in one of these fields with 6+ years of such experience; OR bachelor's degree in one of these fields with 8+ years of such experience.
External applicants must be eligible to work in the US; the role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization.

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/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 evaluate efficacy, target engagement, pharmacodynamic response, and translational relevance of novel therapeutic approaches.
Deliver study-ready data packages and samples on schedule and in compliance with protocols and quality standards.
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.
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 maintain 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.