Postdoctoral Fellow (Protein Engineer)

Postdoctoral fellow (Protein Engineer)

General Summary

Southern Research is seeking a postdoctoral fellow with a passion for moving science in drug discovery using biochemistry, molecular biology, and protein engineering to accelerate our biologics drug discovery pipeline and commercial enterprises.  The selected candidate shall be published one of the following areas: protein engineering, antibody engineering, or nucleic acid design showing contributions to the field. The role will require a strong background in antibody engineering (e.g. ADC, nanobody, Fabs, and Bi-specifics) and biochemical assay development.  A working background knowledge in display technologies would be a benefit to this position. The successful candidate will be able to drive the antibody engineering process through collaborations with multidisciplinary teams from CADD, Oncology, Infectious Disease, and Chemistry to meet project and department goals.  

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Perform protein engineering to drive therapeutic antibody lead selection, design, and optimization for antibody discovery projects.
• Design and execute synthetic display libraries for antibody optimization.
• Express, purify, quantify, and characterize novel antibody/protein molecule.
• Design and select fit for purpose antibody format.
• Develop, quantify, and perform bioanalytical and cell-based assays (ELISA, western blots, flow cytometry binding, reporter assay).
• Have strong hands-on experience in molecular cloning, protein expression, purification and biochemical/biophysical characterization.
• Coordinate with CROs and monitor outsourcing activities to ensure timely delivery of qualified data to steer portfolios.
• Participate in due diligence to evaluate relevant external opportunities in order to license in assets or technologies.
• Cultivates collaborations within SR and throughout the UAB research community.
• Observes appropriate safety and study requirements by reading, understanding and following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Requirements/Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biological Engineering, or related/relevant discipline.
• Publications in the one or more of the following fields: Antibody engineering, peptide engineering, or nucleic acid
• Prior experience developing recombinant plasmid libraries and biochemical assay development.
• Experience expressing proteins from bacteria, yeast, or mammalian expression systems.
• Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate across multiple scientific disciplines. Ability to manage multiple projects in parallel and work with multidisciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication and strong interpersonal skills
• Experience working on complex problems in which analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of multiple factors.
• Ability to determine approaches and procedures to new assignments and must be capable of providing guidance to peers.

Work Environment & Conditions

This position is a laboratory environment and requires the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) including:

• Safety glasses
• Laboratory coats
• Nitrile and latex gloves (varies based on tasks)

Physical Demands

• Ability to perform work utilizing a computer for extended periods of time.
• Ability to sit for extended periods of time without being able to leave the work area.

Certifications, Licenses & Registrations

• No certifications required.