Senior Scientist – Membrane Protein and Computational Scientist

AstraZeneca • Gaithersburg, MD

100d

About The Position

Join AstraZeneca's Critical Reagents group within the Biologics Engineering department, where we are pushing the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines. Our passion for discovery drives us to explore novel therapeutic approaches across various diseases, including Oncology, Respiratory, Inflammatory, Cardiovascular, and Infectious diseases. As part of our collaborative network, you will have the opportunity to engage with new and exciting technologies that are transforming patient care.

Requirements

• Master’s Degree in Biochemistry, Structural Biology or related field with 7+ years of proven experience in industry (preferred) or academia.
• Doctoral Degree with 0-2 years of proven experience in industry (preferred) or academia.
• Experience with membrane proteins (GPCRs, ion channels, or transporters), including expression, purification, and characterization.
• Ability to independently conceive and deliver project plans, including construct design, bacterial and mammalian cell culture, protein expression, and purification (affinity/size-exclusion chromatography).
• Proficiency in protein characterization techniques, including SDS-PAGE, Western blot, ELISA, kinetics measurements using SPR or bilayer interferometry (Octet).
• Experience with flow cytometry or high-throughput methods for epitope prediction/characterization of membrane proteins.
• Familiarity with computational biology tools such as structure prediction, molecular docking and in silico prediction.
• Ability to design experiments, develop and optimize protocols, interpret experimental results, and communicate results effectively.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with novel membrane protein display approaches, including nanodisc, virus-like particles, styrene-maleic acid lipoparticles, or polymer formulations.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute experiments focused on isolating, engineering, and characterizing antibody and antibody-like therapeutics targeting complex membrane proteins.
• Collaborate with scientists to develop research plans, conduct experiments, analyze data, and present findings to project teams and the department.
• Complete wet-lab experiments (80%) and implement computational modelling/AI (20%) approaches to direct/refine findings.
• Design, express, and purify membrane protein antigens for lead generation and characterization.
• Apply high-throughput methods to characterize epitopes of membrane protein-reactive lead candidates.
• Develop and maintain in silico structural pipelines integrating computational tools and models.
• Implement tools like Rosetta/RFdiffusion for protein design and optimization.
• Design and implement experiments evaluating novel protein therapeutics, including therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of action studies.
• Interpret data and report findings to multidisciplinary project teams.

What This Job Offers

• Education Level: Master's degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees