Staff Scientist - Protein / Enzyme Engineering

Programmable DNA, the software of Life, is finally here! Twist Bioscience is developing a disruptive Synthetic DNA technology that will change the world, enabling widespread health and sustainability. Synthetic biologists will use our products to engineer how organisms produce cures to diseases, make everyday chemicals by using the atmosphere as the carbon source, enable plants to make their own fertilizers, and to create in-vivo diagnostics that alert us when we are sick, and many more applications.

Programmable DNA, the software of Life, is finally here! Twist Bioscience is developing a disruptive
Synthetic DNA technology that will change the world, enabling widespread health and sustainability.
Synthetic biologists will use our products to engineer how organisms produce cures to diseases,
make everyday chemicals by using the atmosphere as the carbon source, enable plants to make
their own fertilizers, and to create in-vivo diagnostics that alert us when we are sick, and many more
applications.

Position Summary:

Twist Bioscience is looking for a Staff Scientist who is versatile in Enzyme Engineering with solid structural biology and bioinformatics/programming skills. The hands-on staff scientist will be executing the library design and screening aspects of enzyme evolution for the development of novel enzymes for the purpose of enzymatic DNA synthesis productization amongst other enzyme engineering projects. This person will thrive in an R&D environment and work closely with a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and physicists. The person will also mentor and direct junior staff.

The Staff Scientist will have a passion for working in a fast-paced, product focused environment, be self-motivated, well-organized, and a highly productive and curious scientist.

What You’ll Be Doing

● Engineer enzymes to have novel or improved binding properties, catalytic efficiencies and other required characteristics
● Characterize the physicochemical properties of newly evolved enzymes using both classical and modern techniques
● Designing gene libraries using Twist’s proprietary technology and expression vectors in multiple expression hosts, in-vivo and in-vitro
● Interface with engineering group and transition biochemical assays and formulations to automation platforms
● Facilitate recombinant protein production and purification
● Leverage modern computation protein and enzyme engineering methods

What You’ll Bring to the Team

• 
  ● PhD in molecular biology, Structural Biology protein biochemistry, chemical biology, or related discipline with at least 5+ years of industry experience
  ● a strong track record of successfully creating and modifying various enzymes, developing and applying new methods of enzyme engineering and directed evolution
  ● Strong protein expression and purification skills
  ● Proficiency in enzymology/kinetics and in-vitro biochemistry
  ● Expertise in a variety of analytical methods such as CE, LC-MS, gel electrophoresis, etc. and detailed quantitative analysis of biomolecules
  ● basic data analysis skills using a scripting language (e.g R, python) with experience in importing, cleaning and visualizing scientific data in an automated manner
  ● Experience writing basic functions in python and good understanding of a visualization tool such as Jupyter Notebook or R Studio for sharing code and analysis, as well as knowledge of a plotting library such as
  Matplotlib, Plotly or R shiny. Knowledge of a data analysis library such as pandas would also be highly
  useful
  ● Expertise with in silico enzyme engineering including machine learning and artificial intelligence
  ● Experience with next generation sequencing
  ● Expert knowledge of advanced molecular biology techniques of variant library generation
  ● Knowledge of biochemistry of DNA polymerases or nucleic acid modifying enzymes and various
  molecular biology methods is a plus
  ● Experience and knowledge of bioconjugation workflows and techniques is a plus
  ● Experience in protein engineering assay development is a plus