Senior Laboratory Research Scientist in Chemical Biology

Short summary

The Molecular Glue (MG) Discovery Partnership represents an exciting research partnership between the Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College working in close collaboration with AstraZeneca. Our aim is to unlock new principles of MG discovery, reveal novel MG biology, and exploit the revolutionary therapeutic potential of molecular glue degraders by developing systematic approaches to exploit endogenous protein degradation pathways to target intractable disease-relevant proteins or protein complexes. 

Your role will be to drive discovery and medicinal chemistry optimisation of novel molecular glues, based on starting points discovered through a wide range of biochemical, computational, structural and cellular screening technologies spearheaded by the Partnership. In collaboration with the full team of the Partnership, you will determine the detailed molecular mechanism of action of these glues and unveil new modes of MG degrader activity across diverse targets and effectors (UPS, autophagy).

Both the Partnership and the STP are highly multidisciplinary, encompassing scientists from a variety of backgrounds in an integrated academia-industry setting (chemical biology, cell biology, proteomics, cancer biology, drug discovery, etc.).

Key Responsibilities

• Medicinal chemistry validation and optimisation of hits to generate high quality molecular glue tool compounds (using physicochemical properties, generation and analysis of on-target SAR in biophysical, biochemical and cell-based assays, selectivity profiling, structure-based design etc).
• Collaboration with other STPs and Research Groups within the Partnership to characterise the molecular mechanism of action of small molecule glues, applying biophysical assays, crystallography, cryoEM and omics profiling.
• Design and prosecution of synthetic routes to access small molecule target compounds.
• Continuous professional development as an active member of the scientific community by writing scientific articles, as well as presenting research findings at scientific meetings and/or conferences.

About us

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.

An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL, Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under in one building in Europe.

The Francis Crick Institute will be world-class with a strong national role. Its distinctive vision for excellence includes commitments to collaboration; developing emerging talent and exporting it the rest of the UK; public engagement; and helping turn discoveries into treatments as quickly as possible to improve lives and strengthen the economy.

• If you are interested in applying for this role, please apply via the ‘Apply’ button above.
• All offers of employment are subject to successful security screening and continuous eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.

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