Associate Director Translational Cell Sciences

Associate Director Translational Cell Sciences

UCB - Union Chimique Belge

Braine L'alleud, Belgium

We are currently looking for an Associate Director who is highly motivated to lead the Translational Cell Sciences Team within In Vitro Pharmacology Neurosciences, based in Braine, Belgium.

About the role

With your team, you will generate impactful in vitro assays with human translational relevance to support our small molecule, antibodies and genetic medicines projects. You apply your expertise in in vitro pharmacology to drive mechanistic understanding of novel therapeutic target or therapeutics for different protein classes (e.g. GPCRs, kinases, transporters,…) in the neuroscience area.

Who you’ll work with

You will lead a team of PhD and Master level scientists, with strong expertise in iPSC technology, lab automation and molecular biology. You will interact with focus area leaders and people in their teams as well as across different functions in the context of preclinical pipeline project responsibilities.

What you’ll do

• Apply expertise in iPSC technology, lab automation, molecular biology and transcriptomics to drive translational model validation and assay development;
• Set-up mechanistic and phenotypic assays to explore target mechanisms and evaluation of novel targets;
• Ensure high quality experimentation (internal and external), data analysis and data management;
• Use scientific and management expertise to guide and develop team members in their assignments;
• Represent the Translational Cell Sciences team in cross-disciplinary project teams and in external collaborations with academics, biotechs or CROs;
• Propose, manage and drive internal pipeline programs;
• Foster open and clear communication within the team and across different functions;
• Demonstrate enthusiasm to drive novel technology development applied to translational in vitro models (e.g. brain organoids, single cell ‘omics, cellular binding assays).

Interested?

For this role we’re looking for the following education, experience and skills

• A PhD degree in cell and molecular biology or a closely related discipline with strong background in neurosciences;
• A minimum of 3 years experience leading teams in an industrial drug discovery setting;
• Experience and proven track record in the development and use of cell-based assays to study different molecular target classes (e.g. flow cytometry, ELISA, MSD, cellular target engagement, CETSA, immunofluorescent high content imaging assays, MEA assays, automated western blots,…) for HTS screens as well as primary and secondary in vitro pharmacology assays;
• Experience and proven track record in the development and use of molecular biology tools and assays as plasmid, shRNA and guide RNA design, different PCR methods (qPCR, microRNA PCR, ddPCR), RNAseq or single cell transcriptomics;
• Experience and proven track record in the development and use of biomarker assays and ex vivo assays to support in vivo pharmacology team;
• Ability to set up novel techniques in a result-oriented manner;
• A passion for investigating molecular mechanisms and pharmacology and a good understanding on how targets/pathways can be modulated;
• A deep knowledge of differentiation protocols to generate neural cell types from iPSC in 2D and 3D and validation of their translational potential is an advantage;
• A deep knowledge of developing genetic medicines as siRNA, ASO or gene therapies and proven experience with these modalities is an advantage;
• Proven experience with using liquid handling devices and knowledge on writing application protocols to support screening assays.

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