Scientist, Viral Vector Process Development

About the role

Our mission at Asimov is to advance humanity's ability to design living systems, enabling biotechnologies with outsized benefit to society. We're developing a mammalian synthetic biology platform--from cells to software--to enable the design and manufacture of next-generation therapeutics.

We are seeking a Scientist I/II, Viral Vector Process Development to join our team in Boston, MA. This role is for a technical expert who will conduct lentiviral (LV Edge) and adeno-associated viral (AAV Edge) vector-based process engineering for gene therapies, design complex experimental approaches to improve our workflows and systems, and coordinate project efforts. While primarily focused on viral vector process engineering, there is a high degree of cross-functionality within the Process Development group that includes working on biologics processes (CHO Edge).

The successful candidate will work closely with Asimov’s Viral Vector and Biologics Cell Line Development teams as well as interfacing with external partners. This role reports to the Head of Process Development and is a unique opportunity to work at a nimble, forward-thinking synthetic biology startup and help build the future of biological engineering.

About the Role

• Drive execution in projects that include media/feed optimization, bioreactor process development, process scale-up and characterization at Ambr15, Ambr250, and benchtop scale, along with analytical assay development focused primarily on LV/AAV, with overlap into biologics.
• Work together with the Commercial team to technology transfer developed upstream processes to external partners.
• Create and optimize throughput and robustness of workflows for cell line characterization (transient/stable), small scale screening assays, and product quality assessment.
• Work in tandem with our Viral Vector and Biologics Cell Line Development teams to perform clone screening studies in Ambr15/Ambr250 bioreactor systems.
• Author, review, and approve process development reports and technology transfer protocols.
• Support clarifications, downstream processing/purification, and product quality assessment with analytical tools.
• Represent the process development team on cross-functional projects, making decisions for process development activities and effectively communicating results, progress and plans.

About You

• You have a Bachelors in Biological Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or a related field with 6-8 years of hands-on industry experience performing viral vector process development in support of gene therapies; alternatively, a MS with 3-4 years or PhD with 0-2 years of this type of experience.
• You’re a creative problem solver and get excited about the opportunity to drive the creation of industry-disruptive technology.
• Mammalian cell culture experience and aseptic technique; HEK293-based viral vector process development is squarely in your wheelhouse. Additional CHO-based experience is not required but preferable.
• You must have experience with Ambr15, Ambr250, and/or benchtop scale viral vector bioreactor processes. Analytical development and downstream purification experience is also highly preferable.
• Being detail-oriented isn’t just a sound bite for you, it’s part of your DNA. Keeping track of a bunch of moving parts is easy for you because you’re highly organized. It’s not your first time following a standardized workflow or pipeline.
• Experience in cell line development, and/or the technology transfer of manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical industry is desirable.
• You are an expert in spreadsheets such as Google Sheets or Excel and ideally Spotfire, Google Apps Script (JavaScript) and/or BigQuery to facilitate data management and analysis.
• Experienced with using DOE software to develop robust experiments.
• Experience working with electronic laboratory notebooks, good documentation practices.

Additional information

We're fueled by a vision to transform biological engineering into a fully-fledged engineering discipline. Should you join our team, you will grow with a constantly evolving organization and push the frontiers of synthetic biology. Company culture is key to Asimov, and ours is a culture of recombination; we believe that our mission can only be achieved by bringing together a diverse team with a mixture of backgrounds and perspectives.