Senior Director, Medicinal Chemistry Design

Parabilis Medicines•Cambridge, MA

1d•$240,000 - $295,000•Onsite

About The Position

Parabilis Medicines is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating extraordinary medicines for patients with serious diseases by unlocking biologically important targets long considered undruggable. The company has pioneered a new class of alpha-helical peptides – Helicons™ – capable of modulating intracellular proteins that have historically been beyond the reach of conventional medicines. The company’s lead investigational medicine, zolucatetide, is the first and only direct inhibitor of the β-catenin:TCF interaction, a central node in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway that has eluded drug developers for decades. Zolucatetide is being evaluated in the clinic across multiple Wnt/β-catenin-driven diseases, including desmoid tumors, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and a range of other solid tumor indications. Beyond zolucatetide, Parabilis is advancing additional Helicon-based programs focused on other challenging targets where we believe our medicines could have life-altering impact. Reporting to the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry Design, this is an exciting opportunity to advance a transformational new modality, Helicons TM, including degraders and other induced proximity approaches, with first-in-class and best-in-class programs. We are seeking a creative drug designer with a passion for advancing programs to candidate nomination.

Requirements

PhD in chemistry and 12+ years of industrial experience, or Master’s degree and 15+ years of experience
Demonstrated experience in delivery of drug candidates both as medicinal chemistry lead and program leader
Experience in optimization of induced proximity modalities, such as protein degraders
Inquisitive mindset with desire to build understanding of helicons
Desire to deliver high-quality drug candidates, often for novel biological targets
Experience in structure-based data analysis and hypothesis-driven drug design
Collaborative team member with desire to incorporate computational techniques to increase design quality
Desire and ability to communicate science – from strategy to hypotheses to tactical plans
Demonstrated ability to utilize AI tools for day-to-day work; baseline proficiency is expected, and advanced or innovative use of AI is a strong plus
Able to work on-site and attend in-person meetings

Nice To Haves

Experience in ADCs or other drug conjugates a plus

Responsibilities

Lead drug design teams applying our AI design platform to facilitate rapid SAR decision-making, using state-of-the-art methods in medicinal chemistry and targeted protein degradation.
Serve as program leader, setting strategy, coordinating cross-functional teams, and driving delivery of development candidates.
Develop, implement and communicate an integrated medicinal chemistry strategy, working in concert with partners in Synthesis, Data Science, Platform, in vitro Biology, DMPK, Safety and Pharmacology to reach hit-to-lead and lead optimization goals.
Use hypothesis-based drug design, incorporating in silico methods to address key optimization issues.
Drive progression of lead molecules to pharmacological proof-of-concept studies and development candidate nomination.
Collaborate closely with data scientists to evolve machine learning models for acceleration of the Helicon degrader platform.
Participate in company portfolio and stage-gate reviews.
Present to scientific advisory board.
Collaborate with Lead IP Counsel to formulate intellectual property strategies and draft patent applications.
Mentor colleagues across functions in medicinal chemistry principles.