Scientist / Senior Scientist, Immunology (Treg and CAR T cell therapy)

• Full-time position
• Competitive compensation (Salary, Benefits & Options)
• 180 Varick Street, New York, and 430 E 29th Street, New York

Waypoint Bio is a venture-backed biotech startup building the next generation of cell therapies for solid tumors and autoimmune diseases. Traditional cell therapy development faces a trade-off between in vitro approaches that are fast but inaccurate, and in vivo approaches that are accurate but slow and expensive. Using our proprietary platform combining spatial biology, pooled screening, in silico protein engineering, and machine learning, we can obtain both depth and breadth when screening cell therapy candidates – speed without compromising on in vivo accuracy. Our team is highly collaborative, interdisciplinary, and shares the mission of developing novel immune cell therapies to benefit patients' lives.

Position Summary:

We are seeking a highly motivated, creative scientist who thrives in a fast-paced and collaborative environment. The ideal candidate will have extensive expertise in immunology, including a deep understanding of either regulatory T cells (Tregs) or the design of engineered T cell therapies (e.g. CAR-Treg, CAR-T, TCR-T, or others). Their primary tasks will be to apply their knowledge of the immune system to design novel T cell therapies, optimize the manufacturing of these cell therapies using multiplexed cloning and T isolation & genetic engineering approaches, and then test their function using in vitro and in vivo models of diseases. In this role, you will work collaboratively with our team of computational and wet-lab scientists to develop cutting-edge technologies and new therapeutic options for patients.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Apply your knowledge of immune-related signaling pathways & protein domains to improve the efficacy of existing T cell therapies.
• Generate hundreds of innovative designs for cell therapies that address the challenges in different disease indications, with a focus autoimmune diseases and solid tumors.
• Work independently to optimize the manufacturing conditions for Treg and CAR T cell therapies, and implement these strategies to generate libraries of T cell therapies.
• Develop in vitro assays and in vivo models of Treg function, and work collaboratively to implement these assays to compare the function of different Treg cell therapy designs.
• Implement existing strategies for highly multiplexed cloning, using either pooled cloning or arrayed cloning approaches.
• Introduce new technologies and improve the performance, throughput, and accuracy of existing assays
• Actively engage in prioritizing key milestones and developing appropriate timelines
• Provide conceptual input on experimental design and interpretation in a team setting

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Immunology, Cancer Biology, Protein Design, Cell Biology, or a related field. Alternatively, M.S. or B.S. degree with 5 years or 7 years of equivalent experience, respectively.
• 4+ years of academic or industry experience working on immunology and T cell biology.
• Experience culturing T cells ex vivo and using these cells for downstream assays.
• Strong molecular biology skills for cloning (e.g. Gibson Assembly) and genetic engineering of mammalian cells (e.g. viral approaches, CRISPR systems).
• Knowledge of the interplay between the immune system and either healthy tissues or the tumor microenvironment.
• Practical knowledge of the immune cell therapy field.
• An excellent scientific track record with published papers or recent experience in immunology or cell therapy.
• Superb written and oral communication skills, and the organizational abilities to pursue several projects on tight timelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise in the design and testing of engineered Treg cell therapies (e.g. CAR-Treg, armored T cell therapies) for autoimmune and inflammatory indications.
• Knowledge of the mechanisms used by Treg cells to dampen immune responses in a variety of tissue contexts.
• Experience designing novel in vitro assays or animal models for autoimmune and inflammatory indications.

Send CV and cover letter to apply: