(Senior) Research Associate, Cell Biology

What if… you could join an organization that creates, resources, and builds life sciences companies that invent breakthrough technologies to transform health care?

In today’s healthcare system, disease diagnosis often relies on invasive procedures, such as biopsies, which enable direct interrogation of cellular and tissue health at the suspected source of disease. Due to their invasiveness, cost, and general inconvenience to the patient, biopsies are often conducted after onset of symptomatic disease presenting one of the largest barriers to delivering interventions early in disease progression when they are likely to be most impactful. Flagship Labs 103, Inc. is a privately held early-stage company that is building advanced technological and computational platforms to pioneer the detection of cellular dynamics from minimally invasive biospecimens that can be leveraged to connect individuals to the most effective interventions to prevent onset and progression of disease.

FL103 was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovation enterprise dedicated to originating and developing companies that invent breakthrough technologies that transform health care, agriculture, and sustainability. Since Flagship’s founding in 2000, the firm has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures including Moderna Therapeutics, Generate Biomedicines, and Indigo Agriculture.

Position Summary:

FL103 is seeking a highly motivated research associate or senior research associate with experience in production, purification, and characterization of extracellular vesicles to join our early-stage biotech company. The successful candidate will be a driven, detail-oriented scientist, enthusiastic about being a key contributor supporting multiple state-of-the-art programs to pioneer the detection of cellular dynamics from minimally invasive biospecimens. The position will provide a unique opportunity to play a foundational role in the development of FL103’s innovative bioplatform.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for initiating and maintaining mammalian cell lines and models, including collection, purification, and characterization of EVs to support multiple active programs.
• Work with FL103 scientists to execute experiments and immunoassays to support key hypotheses.
• Assist in the development of laboratory protocols and optimize workflows to build the foundation of FL103’s platform.
• Support lab operations as needed (lab organization and logistics, equipment maintenance, ensuring compliance with all EH&S guidelines, etc.).
• Communicate experimental plans and results effectively through oral presentations and written reports (including electronic lab notebooks), ensuring clear and concise dissemination of information to the FL103 team.
• Play a critical role in enabling FL103 to deliver timely results to key stakeholders and business partners.

Qualifications:

• BA/BS or MS in Biology, Cellular Biology, or a related discipline with a minimum of two years industry experience.
• Demonstrated experience isolating and interrogating extracellular vesicles
• Experience establishing and maintaining mammalian cell cultures
• Experience with a broad range of immuno- and molecular assays (western blot, ELISA, qPCR, flow cytometry, imaging etc.)
• Experience working with a variety of biomaterials (tissues, blood, primary cells, etc.) (preferred)
• Demonstrated ability to be a thoughtful contributor to experimental design and data analysis
• Ability to manage multiple projects, working both independently and collaboratively within a dynamic team
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to present results and scientific data to the internal team and/or collaborators
• Highly attentive to detail, flexible, and curious
• Enthusiastic about playing a pivotal role in building the foundation of a new biotech company

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