Scientist, Protein Production Jobs

Position: Scientist, Protein Production

Reporting to: Director, Biology & Biophysics

Employment term: Full-time

Start date: Immediate

Location: Mississauga, ON

About Dalriada Drug Discovery Inc.:

Founded in 2017, Dalriada is a leading Canadian drug discovery organization specializing in small molecule therapies. Purposely built as an agile, co-located, and uniquely integrated drug discovery partner, Dalriada accelerates the discovery and development journey of high-value new small molecule therapeutics from concept to IND.

Our unique Turn-Key™ operational model offers the global biotechnology industry a full suite of drug discovery, preclinical development, intellectual property, and business expertise to manage and execute tailored R&D programs. To date Dalriada has supported integrated programs and platform build-outs of public and top-tier venture capital-backed biotech companies from the US, UK, Europe, including their collaborations and partnerships with Big Pharma.

Why join?

Our team of passionate and skilled drug discovery scientists is a key factor in Dalriada’s rapid success. Since inception, the company has prioritized creating an environment that promotes professional, scientific, and personal growth and fosters agile innovation through integrative and interdisciplinary learning across all key drug discovery disciplines. We pride ourselves on providing individuals a unique opportunity in small molecule R&D in Ontario to:

• Collaborate with Dalriada’s expert interdisciplinary drug discovery scientists in medicinal & computational chemistry, cell & molecular biology, biophysics & biochemistry, ADME and proteomics (>70% PhD).
• Directly interact with management teams of innovative clinical-stage pharmaceutical and VC-backed biotech companies from across Canada, US and Europe.
• Make a direct impact and contribute intellectually to the creation of better medicines. Our scientists design and evaluate new drug molecules across multiple therapeutic areas and are named inventors or direct contributors on patents.
• Work closely with Dalriada senior leadership and executive team of expert drug discovery scientists, innovators, global pharmaceutical industry executives and entrepreneurs, who collectively have > 165 patents, pharma transactions > $2B, 6 companies founded, >250 years of drug discovery experience, led > 130 drug discovery programs and brought drugs to the clinic and market.
• Learn new things every day in a fast-paced, stimulating, values-based company committed to driving growth, delivering solutions, being accountable and creative.
• Actively conduct and advance cutting-edge science in a state-of-the-art R&D facility.
• Be at the forefront with Ontario’s largest and one of Canada’s fastest-growing drug discovery organizations. In 2023, the company is on track to grow by 40 per cent to approximately 140 employees.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Prepare data summaries and reports to communicate project status to diverse audiences.
• Monitor, review, and critically interpret published research to support experimental efforts.
• Carefully document research workflows, data, and protocols.
• Characterize purified proteins using a range of techniques to facilitate downstream applications like assays, crystallography…etc.
• Utilize molecular biology expertise to clone constructs relevant to bacterial, mammalian, and insect cell expression systems.
• Train and supervise junior team members.
• Maintain lab notebooks and appropriately document experimental results in the database.
• Design, express, and purify high-quality recombinant proteins/enzymes using appropriate expression systems such as bacterial, insect, or mammalian cells.
• Troubleshoot and develop technical solutions to optimize robust protein production.
• Provide expertise in protein biochemistry, enzymology, and molecular biology to support Dalriada's drug discovery programs.

Education

• Experience in screening construct design and optimizing protein expression in a drug discovery platform is ideal.
• MSc in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology with 5+ years of post-graduate experience or PhD with 3+ years of post-graduate experience in diverse protein production platforms and their applications, preferably in a high throughput setting.
• Experience in downstream applications such as structural biology and biophysics will be an asset.

Knowledge, Experience & Technical Skills Requirement

• Significant experience in understanding the mechanism of action of inhibitors/ligands/substrates will be an asset.
• Execute protein purification methods using gravity or AKTA HPLC/FPLC systems, including affinity, ion exchange, hydrophobic, reverse-phase, and size exclusion chromatography.
• Perform small to mid-scale protein purification (e.g., therapeutic proteins, enzymes, kinases, membrane proteins, secretory proteins, GPCRs) using native or denaturing methods as required.
• Proficiency in relevant programs for data analysis and visualization, such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and graphical packages.
• Analytically characterize proteins using SDS-PAGE, Western Blot, and analytical SEC, LC-MS.
• Expertise in handling affinity chromatography techniques and FPLC systems (AKTA/BioRad).
• Advanced knowledge and a demonstrated track record in cloning, gene design, overexpression, and purification of recombinant protein constructs from E. coli, yeast, and mammalian and insect cell expression system platforms.
• Deep knowledge and a demonstrated track record in enzymology and protein biochemistry in various therapeutic areas.
• In-depth understanding and hands-on experience in developing, optimizing, and executing platforms suitable for robust protein production for various downstream applications.
• Hands-on experience with mammalian and insect cell culture will be an asset, including mammalian expression of recombinant gene constructs in transient and stable transfection scales of production.

Skills, Abilities & Competencies

• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills within a team environment.
• Thinks critically and generates creative solutions to challenging scientific questions.
• Able to handle multiple projects simultaneously and meet aggressive project timelines efficiently.
• Agile learner, flexible, innovative, and creative, with the ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams.
• Maintains high scientific rigor and attention to detail in testing hypotheses and analyzing data.
• Driven by scientific excellence and process efficiency.
• Delivers timely results through sound judgment and scientific knowledge.
• Ability to analyze, interpret, and present scientific data and propose next steps in experimental design and overall experimental strategy.

This position is open to applicants legally authorized to work in Canada.

Dalriada Drug Discovery Inc. is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to achieving accessibility by providing accommodation for people with disabilities during our hiring process. Accommodation is available on request for qualified candidates during the recruitment process.

All employment is conditional upon completing and obtaining a satisfactory background check which may include educational, employment, references, and criminal records.