Associate Scientist in Antibody Discovery at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is seeking a highly motivated Associate Scientist in Antibody Discovery to join the Antibody Discovery Collaborative Centre (ADCC) within the Department of Host Microbe Interactions.
This role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to innovative therapeutic antibody discovery programs focused on improving treatments for pediatric diseases. Researchers with expertise in antibody discovery, protein engineering, biologics production, or recombinant antibody expression are encouraged to apply.
The successful candidate will work with cutting-edge antibody discovery platforms, high-throughput screening technologies, and advanced biologics development workflows.
Key Responsibilities
An Associate Scientist in this position will:
- Conduct antibody discovery using phage, yeast, and mammalian display technologies.
- Build and screen high-diversity antibody libraries from synthetic and animal repertoires.
- Design and execute antibody discovery workflows to identify lead therapeutic candidates.
- Integrate machine learning (ML)-based approaches for antibody sequence discovery and engineering (preferred).
- Apply in-vitro display technologies for antigen screening and sequence selection.
- Perform Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) analysis to identify promising antibody sequences.
- Generate antibody libraries and optimize discovery pipelines.
- Develop high-throughput mammalian cell expression platforms for recombinant antibodies and biologics.
- Support molecular biology workflows, including construct design and antibody expression.
- Prepare high-quality plasmid DNA for mammalian cell transfection.
- Establish transient and stable expression systems using CHO, HEK293, and related mammalian cell lines.
- Purify recombinant proteins using AKTA chromatography systems.
- Perform protein characterization using:
- HPLC-SEC
- SEC-MALS
- CE-SDS
- Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF)
- Polyreactivity ELISA
- Maintain accurate electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) records.
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary research teams on therapeutic antibody development.
Qualifications & Skills Required
Applicants should possess:
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant scientific discipline such as:
- Immunology
- Biotechnology
- Molecular Biology
- Biochemistry
- Microbiology
- Biomedical Sciences
Minimum Research Experience As:
- Bachelor’s Degree: 7+ years of research experience
- Master’s Degree: 5+ years of research experience
- PhD: 2+ years of research experience
Candidates with experience in the following areas will be highly competitive:
- Antibody discovery platforms
- Phage display technology
- Yeast display
- Mammalian display systems
- Protein engineering
- Recombinant antibody production
- Library generation and screening
- Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)
- Molecular biology techniques
- Mammalian cell culture (CHO and HEK293)
- AKTA protein purification systems
- HPLC Size Exclusion Chromatography (HPLC-SEC)
- Protein characterization assays
- High-throughput biologics production
- Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) documentation
- Scientific project coordination
- Training and mentoring laboratory personnel
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