Manufacturing Technician

Gene therapy is a promising treatment option for a number of diseases that currently have no other cures.

The GTIMC at Sheffield is one of three cutting-edge hubs in the UK dedicated to advancing the clinical development of new genetic treatments options for millions of patients with life-threatening diseases.

The Sheffield Hub, which is the first in the north of England, is part of an £18 million network created by LifeArc and the Medical Research Council (MRC), with support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The GTIMC is located at the University of Sheffield’s Innovation District, close to the centres of Sheffield and Rotherham and within easy reach of major transportation corridors and regional shopping and entertainment complexes.

The centre will include a cutting-edge GMP (good manufacturing practice) facility that will support gene therapy projects emerging from universities across the UK, helping novel medicines progress to clinical trials. In this way, it will play its part in increasing the number of treatments available for genetic diseases that currently have no cure.

The facility will utilise highly efficient processes to manufacture clinical grade adeno-associated viruses (AAV) and provide all the necessary quality assurance, regulatory certification and governance for human trials at Advanced Therapies Treatment Centres and NHS hospital sites.

Role Description

The Manufacturing Technician will operate in bespoke clean rooms at the GTIMC, performing a variety of roles. As the GTIMC seeks MHRA licensing the role will support the commissioning of the clean rooms and relevant areas of the wider GTIMC facility as well as the scale up of our AAV production platform to large volume bioreactors. Once this initial phase is completed, the role will transition to carrying out day-today operations as part of the manufacturing team.

The clean rooms contain three broad areas of operation. Upstream production of crude AAV material in large volume, downstream purification of high concentration final AAV product and fill and finish of final product into the appropriate storage vessels. The manufacturing technician will utilise cell culture techniques and various forms of bioreactors to produce the crude AAV material before chromatography and tangential flow filtration methods to concentrate and diafiltrate the final product.

The GTIMC clean rooms will operate under GMP conditions, and so an understanding of these guidelines, their function and their requirement is key. We encourage applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, including those without an express background in gene therapy, but with transferable skills to that of a bioprocess manufacturing clean room.

The University

We’re one of the best not-for-profit organisations to work for in the UK. The University’s Total Reward Package includes a competitive salary, a generous Pension Scheme and annual leave entitlement, as well as access to a range of learning and development courses to support your personal and professional development.

We build teams of people from different heritages and lifestyles from across the world, whose talent and contributions complement each other to greatest effect. We believe diversity in all its forms delivers greater impact through research, teaching and student experience.

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