Senior Scientist, Cell Biology

The Company

Flagship Labs 95, Inc. (FL95) is transforming the impact, breadth, and scalability of programmable medicines with a novel class of noncanonical viral vectors.

FL95 is a well-funded, early-stage biotechnology company founded by Flagship Pioneering, an organization dedicated to the origination and development of first-in-category life sciences companies.  Since 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered the development of nearly 100 scientific ventures resulting in $20+ billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued patents, and more than 50 clinical trials for novel therapeutic agents.

The Role

We are seeking a Senior Scientist, Cell Biology to join us in building a novel discovery and development platform for noncanonical viral vector-based programmable medicines. This is a rare and unique opportunity to be an early employee of a cutting-edge biotech startup. This candidate will be responsible for driving forward research and experimental work in and outside of the lab to generate decisive data packages that advance the company and platform development.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and lead short- and long-term research strategy for in vitro and ex vivo screening.
• Drive scientific and R&D efforts by designing and conducting experiments to high scientific rigor.
• Support the implementation of novel research assays, tools, and operational tasks in and out of the lab.
• Prepare and deliver decision-enabling research data packages to leadership team
• Supervise and train junior research associate(s)

Who you are

• Entrepreneurial scientist: You are a deep scientific expert in ex vivo and in vitro targeted biologics (ADC, antibody, viral vector) screening and mammalian cell culture but academia was too slow for you. You have an unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit to build something new that will create huge impact for the world.
• Relentless Pioneer: You thrive in new and unknown territory – capable of charting comprehensive but actionable plans, executing rapidly and iteratively to make progress, and reliable in delivering decisive readouts on time.
• Team player: You flourish in collaborative work environments with other highly-skilled individuals. You readily celebrate your peers’ victories and support their challenges.
• Effective communicator: You not only understand the science but are capable of conveying technical information in a clear, concise, and decisive manner.

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D. in biology, immunology, or related field.
• 5+ years of industry experience in biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies developing and executing targeted biologics screening assays. Post-doc experience is acceptable as long as it is highly related.
• Deep laboratory and technical expertise that is required:
  • Mammalian cell culture, adherent and suspension, as well as associated techniques (cell counting, viability staining, etc).
  • Multi-color flow cytometry (panel design and experimental execution).
  • Primary cell isolation from whole blood/leukopaks (e.g., ficoll gradient, pos/neg selection) or willingness to learn.
  • Design and execution of medium throughput in vitro- and ex vivo-based targeted biologics screening assays.
• Other technical expertise considered highly desirable:
  • Design and execution of early in vivo pharmacology studies.
  • Tumor and healthy tissue dissociation and analysis.
  • Fluorescence microscopy (plate based, manual, automated).
  • Luminex, MSD/ELISA, BLI/Octet.
  • Immunohistochemistry staining protocol optimization and data interpretation.
  • Immunofluorescence.
• Experience collaborating with and guiding CROs on out-sourced projects highly desirable.
• Experience managing direct reports highly desirable.

Location: Cambridge, MA

More About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life science platform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $100 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.1 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $19 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises  transformative companies, including  Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Sana Biot