The Role:
Moderna’s Infectious Disease Research group is seeking a talented, experienced and motivated Bioinformatician Scientist to be part of the vaccine discovery team for a wide range of disease targets. The Scientist will apply expertise in structural bioinformatics and immunology to design novel mRNA sequences for candidate vaccines. The Scientist will work with other members of the Infectious disease team and external collaborators on the discovery and development of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine and immunotherapy candidates and help to advance these into IND-enabling studies. The Scientist will collaborate with other cross-functional teams to evaluate designed mRNAs in the lab and present results internally and externally. The role will involve collaboration with other scientists within the Moderna ecosystem including, among others, cellular immunologists, virologists, bacteriologist and computational scientists to design novel vaccine candidates against infectious disease targets. Located in Cambridge, MA, the Scientist should be outstanding in their fields, collaborative team members and excellent communicators.
Here’s What You’ll Do:
• Bioinformatically analyze protein structures and sequences from pathogens and design mRNA vaccine sequences for testing in vitro by other team members.
• Propose novel vaccine and therapeutic targets aligned with Moderna’s scientific strategy and capabilities. Interpret, troubleshoot, and report complex data.
• Align with Infectious Disease Research group members for key antigen design needs and the evaluation of the designed mRNA vaccine candidates.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams across the Moderna ecosystem, collaborators and CROs to progress candidates from discovery through IND-enabling studies.
• Maintain expertise in the field of infectious disease, immunotherapy and therapeutic developments, biomarker discovery and patient outcomes, attend conferences, and liaise with external experts in the field.
• Manage multiple experiments, projects and interactions with supporting functions.
• Apply scientific expertise to identify mRNA vaccine and immunotherapy discovery strategies.
• Provide scientific and technical support to interdisciplinary project teams.
• Prepare documents and present strategy, results, project updates, and summaries.
Here’s What You’ll Bring to the Table:
• Exceptional PhD in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, or related field.
• Experience in protein redesign, homology modeling, and sequence analyses is required. We are particularly interested in candidates with prior experience in structure-based vaccine design.
• Experience in either free energy calculation or molecular dynamics is required.
• Proficiency in Unix-based systems, scripting language (Python/R/Perl), a good working knowledge of relevant data analysis and visualization packages including 3D protein structure.
• Experience in T-cell and B-cell epitope prediction is a plus.
• Experience in sequence-feature analysis is a plus.
• Proven ability to interpret complex data and present conclusions in a clear and understandable way to a broad audience.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, comfort with senior management interactions
• Strong time management and problem-solving skills.
• Positive team building and teamwork skills, willing to give and receive constructive feedback
• Proven track record of high impact publications and presentations in the field of protein or antigen design.
• The Ability to work in a cross-functional work environment is critical, engagement with personnel in different parts of the company; strong leadership skills and independence 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 paths for vaccine and drug discovery, bold in proposing creative experimental designs and ideas. Will work collaboratively with multifunctional teams and will be relentless in pursuing successful outcomes.
Apply at www.Modernatx.com