Research Associate in Antibody-Drug Conjugate Chemical Biology

About the role:

We are seeking an ambitious and creative chemical biologist with strong synthetic chemistry skills to join the group of Prof Ed Tate at Imperial College, working on design and application of disruptive new technologies for novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) discovery.

ADCs offer the potential to improve the quality of life for millions of patients by combining unprecedented efficacy with reduced side effects; they are among the fastest-growing classes of drugs, with a market expected to reach over $30 billion in the next 10 years. This is a rapidly evolving field, and ADC-related spinouts from our lab have raised over $100 million in Venture investment to date (e.g. Myricx Bio, https://myricxbio.com/, Siftr Bio, https://siftr.bio/).

The Tate lab has recently developed a powerful technology platform for de novo discovery of the critical linker component of an ADC directly from patient-derived tissue, enabling selective release of the drug to maximise therapeutic index, combining high potency with low toxicity. You will have the unique opportunity to make foundational contributions to ADC linker technology and its application to in vivo proof of concept studies, whilst collaborating with entrepreneurial innovators at Cancer Research Horizons (CRH), who are supporting the project under the Therapeutic Catalyst scheme. See the Tate group website for recent relevant papers (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/tate-group/), for example: Angew Chemie 2023, e202311190; JACS 2022, 22493; Nat Chem Biol 2021, 776; JACS 2021, 8911; ACS Chem Biol 2020, 1306. Further details will be discussed in confidence with shortlisted candidates.

What you would be doing:

You will be responsible for design, synthesis and application of novel selective linkers for targeted delivery, with a focus on linkers for ADCs, using a currently undisclosed proprietary in-house novel linker discovery platform. This work will involve screening patient tissue samples to generate massive substrate profile datasets in high throughput; application of in-house machine learning algorithms to identify optimal linker activity and selectivity; synthesis and characterisation of linker candidates; and proof of concept studies to demonstrate their utility in ADC designs.

You will join a team of outstanding scientists in the Tate lab at Imperial’s state-of-the art £200M Molecular Sciences Research Hub at Imperial’s White City campus. Our group is culturally diverse and highly multidisciplinary, with project teams at all levels of experience and a variety of backgrounds.

What we are looking for:

Essential criteria for the role include:

• Hold, or near completion of, a PhD qualification in an area closely related to the project field, or an equivalent level of professional qualifications and experience
• Strong research track record relative to experience, in academia and/or industry
• Knowledge of linker-relevant synthetic methods

What we can offer you:

Working within the Tate group would give you the opportunity to work with >60 scientists at all levels from undergraduates to postdoctoral researchers with our state-of-the-art labs in West London. You will be joining a team with an excellent track record in the areas of antimicrobial resistance and drug discovery (https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.01206-22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2019.06.025).  

Further Information

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant.

If you require any further details on the role please contact: Professor Ed Tate: e.tate@imperial.ac.uk

You will be based at White City Campus, with travel to the Francis Crick Institute required.      

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