Senior Research Associate/Research Associate, Process Development

Company Summary:

FL87, Inc. is a privately held, early-stage biotechnology company developing a novel approach to gene therapy that can address currently untreatable diseases.

FL87 was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovation enterprise that conceives, creates, resources, and grows first-in-category life sciences companies. Flagship Pioneering has created over 100 groundbreaking companies over the past twenty years, all of which are pioneering novel and proprietary biological, industrial, and engineering approaches to solve major needs in human health and sustainability. These companies include Moderna (MRNA), Syros Pharmaceuticals (SYRS), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MCRB), Generate Biomedicines, Tessera Tx, Evelo Biosciences (EVLO), and Indigo Agriculture.

Position Summary:

We are searching for an experienced and enthusiastic Senior Research Associate/Research Associate to support the manufacturing of novel nucleic acid therapeutics. We are looking for an individual who enjoys hands-on laboratory benchwork and brings scientific rigor and intellectual curiosity to their role. This individual will have the opportunity to work in a dynamic and fast-paced entrepreneurial environment as part of a highly collaborative and rapidly growing team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with the team to drive the advancement of platform development, developing methods for scalable, rigorous, and cost-effective manufacturing and quality control. Step into benchwork to execute platform goals with tenacity, agility, and timeliness. 
• The successful candidate will work as part of the team responsible for the development, characterization, and production of nucleic acid therapeutics.
• Synthesize and purify routine nucleic acid products for preclinical studies.
• Help establish and optimize nucleic manufacturing scale-up capability.
• Help develop scalable strategies for downstream product purification.
• Carry out process development studies using the design-of-experiments approach.
• Perform routine analytical and bioanalytical tasks such as HPLC, fragment analysis, UV, and fluorescence.
• Analyze, summarize, and present experimental results to team members and management.
• Explore new technologies and methods to optimize current processes in fast-paced research environment.
• Maintain up-to-date records and communicate results to team members in written technical reports and oral presentations.
• Participate in experimental design and troubleshooting efforts.
• Interpret, summarize experimental data and maintain excellent laboratory notebooks.

Qualifications:

• BS with 1-5 years, MS with 1-2 years of academic or industry experience in nucleic acid manufacturing.
• Attention to detail, ability to multi-task, and trouble-shoot.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent record keeping and data management skills.
• The ideal candidate is adaptable, enthusiastic about new challenges, has an innate curiosity, and a passion for learning.
• Experience working in fast-paced startup environments.
• Excellent organization skills, approaching tasks with efficiency.
• Ability to analyze, summarize, and communicate scientific data.
• Ability to work independently while effectively interacting and collaborating in a team environment.

Location: Cambridge, MA 

About Flagship

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at