Senior Research Associate, Discovery and Translational Biology

Senior Research Associate, Discovery and Translational Biology

About Treeline Biosciences

Treeline Biosciences was founded by an experienced team of biopharmaceutical scientists and executives and is committed to developing new medicines against difficult-to-drug targets in cancer and other life-threatening diseases. We are pursuing a uniquely integrated approach that applies modern and emerging tools in genomics, cell biology, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, and computation to reduce the time and risk of classical drug discovery approaches.

About you

You thrive in a fast-paced and matrixed discovery environment requiring insight, innovation, and scientific rigor. You are creative, diligent, and meticulous in approaching difficult scientific problems and can collaborate across disciplines to advance projects. You have an eagerness to take on responsibilities outside of traditional discovery biology roles, to establish strong internal capabilities at a rapidly growing new company and to generate key data sets that will inform the clinical development of effective new therapies for people with cancer.

About the role

This person will be responsible for generating robust preclinical datasets to inform key aspects of clinical development strategies, including the design of early-phase clinical trials and the expansion of late-stage clinical development programs. This researcher will work closely within Discovery teams to advance clinical candidates with strong translational strategies. They will also work with Translational colleagues to advance translational strategies that will enhance the probability of success for early-stage clinical programs. In addition, they will work to identify additional uses for agents beyond initial proof-of-concept, with the aim of delivering clinical benefit to additional patient populations.

Responsibilities

This role is lab-focused, with an emphasis on generating strong preclinical data sets to inform clinical development strategies, from early first-in-human and proof-of-concept trials to later-stage studies aimed at regulatory approvals and label expansion.

• Work with Discovery project teams to characterize the biological effects of lead agents in vitro, aiming to strengthen confidence in mechanism-of-action, confirm on-target activity and define factors/pathways that influence sensitivity/resistance
• Utilize a variety of molecular biology, cell biology and chemical biology techniques to dissect complex cancer signaling pathways, define the roles of project targets and measure the effects of modulating those targets with lead agents
• Conceive, develop and optimize robust pharmacodynamic and predictive markers for guiding dose selection, clinical hypothesis testing and prospective patient selection
• Complete correlative studies with relevant tissues/samples in-house or at CROs
• Critically evaluate project data to contribute to data-driven Go/No-go decisions
• Survey the literature, seminars, and scientific meetings for novel methodology to drive our projects forward

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Biology or related discipline with at least 4 years of industry experience.
• Cancer biology expertise and experience, including a strong focus on target/agent mechanism-of-action, pharmacodynamic (PD) and predictive biomarkers, mechanisms of resistance, rational combinations and the identification of potential new indications for therapeutics
• Successful track record as part of multidisciplinary teams spanning biochemistry, cell biology, in vivo pharmacology, DMPK, medicinal chemistry, bioinformatics, etc.
• Experience working on small-molecule drug discovery programs, including target validation, screening/hit finding, hit-to-lead and lead optimization
• Demonstrated experience in dissecting cancer biology pathways and solving complex biology problems in the context of drug discovery and translation.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on multidisciplinary teams

Treeline Biosciences is committed to protecting the health and safety of our team. Our company requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including a booster shoot. Proof of vaccination must be provided prior to the first day of employment. As required by applicable law, Treeline will consider requests for Reasonable Accommodations.