Platform Biology Lead

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

Apriori Bio is an early-stage biotechnology company with an ambitious and exciting mission: to lay the foundation for Global Pathogen Shield™ protective interventions that that can neutralize a wide range of the most dangerous and rapidly evolving infectious pathogen threats.  The company is developing a revolutionary approach to this challenge and recruiting a team of top-tier scientists to build what it believes will be a powerful, first-in-category R&D platform.

Apriori Bio is a product of Flagship Pioneering’s venture creation engine, which has also given rise to companies such as Moderna Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRNA), Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), and Editas Medicines (NASDAQ: EDIT). Since Flagship’s founding in 2000, the firm has originated and fostered the development of more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $34 billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued patents, and more than 50 clinical trials for novel therapeutic agents.

Position Summary:

We are seeking a Principal Scientist with strong experience of molecular biology and viral evolution to lead the conceptualization and development of Apriori’s experimental platform.  The candidate will be responsible for designing and constructing innovative assays and performing a range of laboratory studies geared towards enabling a pipeline of novel health interventions.  This is a critically important role for Apriori that will require not only hands-on involvement at the level of individual experiments, but also ongoing partnership with key colleagues in the articulation and execution of the company’s scientific, technological and commercial strategies.  The ideal candidate will have a track record of success in inventing and deploying sophisticated new tools for high-volume, high-speed discovery, and deriving unique insights from biological data – particularly as regards protein structure, protein-protein interactions, viral escape and immune system function. Experience with the design of interventions such as vaccines or antibody therapeutics is a strong plus. An essential element of the role will be the ability to collaborate closely with other R&D scientists while adapting to and interpreting new experimental findings and providing experimental guidance in keeping with the company’s objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Working closely with other molecular biologists and computational scientists within and beyond Apriori, lead the design and deployment of innovative, proprietary assays
• Perform and oversee critical data-generating experiments
• Build an infrastructure of laboratory protocols, tools and systems to enable focused and rapid discovery and early pipeline development
• Apply rigorous methods to interpret emerging data in the context of key scientific questions
• Build insights and perspectives to help inform Apriori’s scientific, technological and commercial strategies
• Identify relevant external findings, tools and datasets, and build on these as necessary to support company objectives
• Communicate insights and conclusions to the scientific team and executive management
• Develop relationships with Flagship Pioneering’s broader science community and manage external consultants as needed

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD. or equivalent in molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, or a related field of biological science
• Good understanding of evolutionary biology as pertaining to cellular and molecular systems
• Extensive experience of pooled cloning, directed mutagenesis and/or high-throughput assay development
• Experience in immunology, virology and/or vaccine design
• Previous work with biological sequence or protein structure datasets
• Experience with mammalian cell culture

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with RNA isolation and reverse transcription
• Familiarity with NGS/RNA-Seq methods
• Experience working under BSL2 conditions
• Familiarity with biological data repositories and public omics data resources

Values and Behaviors

We are seeking individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit, strong communication skills, and comfort working in and contributing to a dynamic and cross-functional team environment. The level of the role will be commensurate with the education and years of experience of the identified candidate.

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual or