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Associate Scientist/ Scientist, Conjugation Development

Employer
Vaxcyte, Inc.
Location
San Carlos, California
Start date
May 3, 2022

View more

Discipline
Science/R&D, Biotechnology
Required Education
Masters Degree/MBA
Position Type
Full time
Hotbed
Biotech Bay

Job Details

Company Profile:

Vaxcyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCVX) is a vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases. The Company is developing broad-spectrum conjugate and novel protein vaccines to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases. Vaxcyte’s lead candidate, VAX-24, is a 24-valent, broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccine being developed for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). The Company is re-engineering the way highly complex immunizations are made through modern synthetic techniques, including advanced chemistry and our exclusively licensed XpressCFTM cell-free protein synthesis platform. Unlike conventional cell-based approaches, the Company’s system for producing difficult-to-make proteins and antigens is intended to accelerate its ability to efficiently create and deliver high-fidelity vaccines with enhanced immunological benefits. Vaxcyte’s pipeline also includes VAX-XP, a PCV with an expanded breadth of coverage of greater than 30 strains; VAX-A1, a prophylactic vaccine candidate designed to prevent Group A Strep infections; and VAX-PG, a therapeutic vaccine candidate designed to slow or stop the progression of periodontal disease. The Company is driven to eradicate or treat invasive bacterial infections, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked. For more information, visit www.vaxcyte.com.
 
Vaxcyte, headquartered in San Carlos, CA, went public in June 2020 and currently has a team of approximately 100 employees and anticipates continued, significant growth. On January 6, 2022, Vaxcyte announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had cleared the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for VAX-24, its lead vaccine candidate. The Company initiated the VAX-24 Phase 1/2 clinical proof-of-concept study in adults in the first quarter of 2022 and expects to announce Phase 2 topline immunogenicity, safety, and tolerability results by the end of the year. VAX-24 was designed to prevent IPD, which can be most serious for infants, young children, older adults and those with immune deficiencies or certain chronic health conditions. Given the global impact of pneumococcal disease remains significant, the public health community continues to advocate for vaccines that can offer broader protection to prevent IPD. Vaxcyte’s PCV franchise, consisting of VAX-24 and VAX-XP, is designed specifically to address this need and has the potential to deliver the broadest protection for this very serious disease.
 
Summary:

Vaxcyte is looking for an Associate Scientist or Scientist, Conjugation Development who will contribute to the development of a robust process for generating the company’s proprietary pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Specifically, this will include synthesis, purification, and analytical characterization of chemically modified polysaccharides and polysaccharide-protein conjugates. The successful candidate will be expected to optimize and troubleshoot the synthesis and purification procedures as appropriate. The candidate will also contribute when needed to a range of related areas such as analytical development and stability studies. Responsibilities will additionally include record management, data presentation at group meetings, and contributing to the authorship of laboratory protocols and development reports.
Essential Functions:
    • Optimize and troubleshoot multi-step syntheses of protein-polysaccharide conjugates.
    • Purify polysaccharides and conjugates using a variety of methods including dialysis, size-exclusion chromatography, and tangential flow filtration (TFF).
    • Analyze polysaccharides and conjugates with methods including colorimetric assays, HPLC assays, and SEC-MALS.
    • Maintain highly organized records to enable optimization & assessment of reproducibility.
    • Track inventory of reagents critical to conjugation development and make purchases to replenish when necessary.
    • Attend team meetings ready to provide updates on conjugation development progress.

Requirements:
    • Degree in chemistry, biochemistry, or related field with 3+ (BS), 1+ (MS), or 0+ (PhD) years of industry experience. The ideal candidate will have an excellent understanding of analytical chemistry principles and significant laboratory experience.
    • Experience with laboratory-scale protein purification methods such as dialysis, defiltration and size-exclusion chromatography (gravity flow and FPLC). Experience with tangential flow filtration (TFF) is desirable.
    • Working knowledge of analytical methods including colorimetric assays, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), and SDS-PAGE for characterization of reaction products.
    • Experience performing protein conjugation reactions is desirable.
    • Experience with chemical modification of polysaccharides is desirable.
    • Attention to detail and excellent organizational skills.
    • Strong interpersonal skills; ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in written formats.
    • Self-starter; ability to work in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment and collaborate effectively with other team members.
    • Enthusiasm to learn the new skills and techniques necessary to tackle problems outside of current area of expertise.
    • All Vaxcyte employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19

Reports to: Sr. Scientist, Conjugation Development
 
Location: San Carlos, CA
 
Compensation:
The compensation package will be competitive and includes comprehensive benefits and an equity component.
 

Send resumes to:
careers@vaxcyte.com

Vaxcyte, Inc.
825 Industrial Rd.
San Carlos, CA 94070

Company

Vaxcyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCVX) is a next-generation vaccine company seeking to improve global health by developing superior and novel vaccines designed to prevent some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases worldwide. Our exclusively licensed cell-free protein synthesis platform and our proprietary know how enable us to design and produce optimized protein carriers and antigens, the critical building blocks of vaccines, in ways that we believe conventional vaccine technologies cannot. Our lead vaccine candidate, VAX-24, is a preclinical, 24-valent broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) being developed for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease. Our pipeline also includes VAX-XP, a PCV with an expanded breadth of coverage of at least 30 strains; VAX-A1, a prophylactic vaccine candidate designed to prevent Group A Strep infections; and VAX-PG, a therapeutic vaccine candidate designed to slow or stop the progression of periodontal disease by targeting the keystone pathogen responsible for this chronic, oral inflammatory disease.

Company info
Website
Phone
(650) 837-0111
Location
825 Industrial Road, Suite 300
San Carlos
CA
94070
US

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