Sr. Scientist, Infectious Disease Research

The Role:

The Infectious Diseases group at Moderna is seeking a talented, experienced, and motivated Scientist with experience in Microbiology (especially gene knock-down and transcriptional analysis). The candidate will be part of a team responsible for advancing therapeutic and vaccine candidates in early discovery through IND-enabling studies, and clinical trials. The candidate will design and implement new approaches including in vivo transcriptomic analysis aimed at dissecting the protective immune responses across pathogens. The work will include different platforms aimed at accelerating the development of novel vaccines and therapeutics across bacterial diseases. This work will include the design, development, and execution of transformative studies to deeply evaluate immune responses, including antibody and immune cell characterization, the development of anti-microbial assays. The candidate will interface with collaborators and present results both internally and externally. The ability to effectively communicate across internal multi-disciplinary teams and with external partners is required. Applicants should be outstanding scientists, collaborative team members, excellent communicators, and should be excited to work with cutting edge mRNA technology in the advancement of vaccines against unmet infectious disease threats

Heres What Youll Do:

Establish in vivo vaccine target discovery strategies.

Develop pathogen-specific and host-specific transcriptome analysis.

Develop knock out pathogen libraries to evaluate protective immune responses.

Use flow cytometry and systems immunology to profile protective immune responses.

Assist with immunogenicity studies and in vivo challenge experiments

Assist in the development of new vaccine or therapeutic programs to accelerate mRNA platform in the development of new treatments.

Develop relations with pre-clinical CROs and review pre-clinical immunology results

Run standard immunogenicity screens, including ELISAs, Systems Serology, Neutralization assays, Octet, Luminex, Flow cytometry and MSD.

Review literature for relevant immune screening approaches and for new technology with application to infectious disease research.

Manage multiple experiments, projects, and interactions with supporting functions simultaneously.

Heres What Youll Bring to the Table:

Exceptional PhD with expertise in Microbiology is required and preferred. Knowledge of immunology is a plus.

3 or more years of independent research experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry will be a plus.

Strong level of understanding of pathogen life cycle, antigen discovery, genetic manipulation.

Strong level of understanding and expertise for genetic manipulation of bacteria such as generation of loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutants

Knowledge of a transcriptome analysis pipeline: RNA isolation, qRT-PCR, library generation, transcriptional analysis, RNAseq, and/or Tn-seq

Contributions to high impact publications and presentations in the field of microbiology or vaccinology.

The ability to work in a cross-functional work environment is critical; strong leadership skills and independence skills are expected.

Excellent written, presentation and interpersonal communication skills; ability to influence and collaborate in a team environment.

Candidate will be curious in exploring new path for drug discovery, bold in proposing creative experimental designs and ideas. Will work collaboratively with multifunctional teams and will be relentless in pursuing successful outcomes.

Moderna is pleased to provide you and your family with a comprehensive and innovative suite of benefits, including:

• Highly competitive and inclusive medical, dental and vision coverage options
• Flexible Spending Accounts for medical expenses and dependent care expenses
• Lifestyle Spending Account funds to help you engage in personal enrichment and self-care activities
• Family care benefits, including subsidized back-up care options and on-demand tutoring
• Free premium access to fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness classes
• Exclusive preferred pricing on Peloton fitness equipment
• Adoption and family-planning benefits
• Dedicated care coordination support for our LGBTQ+ community
• Generous paid time off, including:
  Vacation, sick time and holidays
  Volunteer time to participate within your community
  Discretionary year-end shutdown
  Paid sabbatical after 5 years; every 3 years thereafter
• Generous Paid Leave offerings, including 18 weeks of 100% paid parental leave for all new parents
• 401k match and Financial Planning tools
• Moderna-paid Life, LTD and STD insurance coverages, as well as voluntary benefit options
• Complimentary concierge service including home services research, travel booking, and entertainment requests
• Free parking or subsidized commuter passes
• Location-specific perks and extras!

Candidates should be aware that Moderna currently maintains a policy requiring all US-based employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and receive a booster shot once eligible. Newly hired employees must be vaccinated and boosted prior to their employment start date. Moderna is an equal opportunity employer and will provide a reasonable accommodation to those unable to be vaccinated or receive a booster where it is not an undue hardship to the company to do so as provided under federal, state, and local law.

About Moderna

In over 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across seven modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for rapid clinical and commercial production at scale. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna's capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use and approval of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna's mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune diseases. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past seven years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.

Moderna is a smoke-free, alcohol-free and drug-free work environment.

Moderna is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a persons race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Moderna will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.

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