Senior Research Associate, Platform Biology

Flagship Pioneering•Cambridge, MA

32d•$81,000 - $107,250

About The Position

Apriori Bio is an early-stage biotechnology company with an ambitious and exciting mission: to lay the foundation for Global Pathogen Shield™ protective interventions that that can neutralize a wide range of the most dangerous and rapidly evolving infectious pathogen threats. The company is developing a revolutionary approach to this challenge and recruiting a team of top-tier scientists to build what it believes will be a powerful, first-in-category R&D platform. Apriori Bio was founded by Flagship Pioneering, a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com . Position Summary: We are seeking an innovative and focused Senior Research Associate with experience using Next Gen Sequencing to screen pooled libraries, including virus-like particles. The candidate will support screening of human sera to generate neutralization data for AI/ML design of anti-viral vaccines. The ideal candidate will have a track record of success executing and optimizing NGS assays. Experience with RNA and RNA viruses is a plus. This role requires collaboration with a matrixed team of scientists and data scientists to deliver on the company platform and pipeline goals. Experience with vaccines, virology and AI is also desirable.

Requirements

B.S. in bio-medical engineering, molecular biology, virology, immunology or a related field with 5+ years experience, including direct experience with NGS-based screening; or M.S. with closely related experience
Direct experience generating dose response curves
Direct experience with pooled library screening
Experience with molecular cloning, qPCR, and sequence analysis

Nice To Haves

Experience with viral library generation and/or high-throughput assay development
Familiarity with NGS/RNA-Seq methods and their implementation
Familiarity with laboratory automation
Understanding of viral functional genomics and viral phylodynamics/evolution
Experience with vaccines, virology and AI is also desirable.

Responsibilities

Perform critical data-generating experiments
Execute NGS-based sera neutralization assays of pooled virus-like particles
Execute and optimize cell culture processes for library production to achieve high quality and high yields of vectors
Implement strategies to increase throughput of sera screening
Effectively capture experimental protocols and data in an ELN
Conduct experiments, analyze data, and troubleshoot to improve NGS workflow
Work closely with molecular virologists and data scientists to support the design and deployment of innovative, proprietary assays
Help build the infrastructure of laboratory protocols, tools, and systems to enable focused and rapid discovery and early pipeline development
Communicate insights and conclusions to the scientific team and executive management