Senior Scientist / Principal Scientist

The Role:

Abata Therapeutics is currently seeking a highly motivated, self-driven, and creative individual with a deep expertise in immunology, cell therapy and gene engineering and is looking to join an outstanding research team dedicated to translating the biology of regulatory T cells into transformational medicines for patients. This individual will enjoy working in a pioneering, fast-paced and collaborative start-up environment with the opportunity to direct and oversee Early discovery, focused at the intersection of immunology, cell engineering, and cell manufacturing. This individual will join a culture of intellectual rigor, scientific curiosity, and collegiality, cross functionally contributing to research across the organization.

We view the candidate as an important team member whose contributions will be critical to our success in developing new therapeutics to improve the lives of patients.

Major Responsibilities:

• Provide expertise by advising experimental design and strategy related to immunology and cell therapy.
• Effectively design, plan, and execute experiments from antigen-driven cell-based immunological assays, to discovering and characterizing several components of novel cell therapies using cell culture, flow cytometry, molecular biology, and genetic engineering techniques to overcome the current limitations to targeted cell therapy.
• Drive projects in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of scientists to develop optimized cell therapy candidates for clinical development
• Contribute meaningfully to building out our internal efforts to advance cell therapy at the forefront of scientific innovation.
• Identify and support external academic and commercial partnerships.
• Communicate data and findings to the scientific team and key stakeholders within the company.
• Help grow an early and ambitious cell therapy company developing therapeutics for currently intractable autoimmune conditions

Requirements and Qualifications:

• PhD in Immunology, Molecular and Cellular Biology or a related discipline with 5 + years of post-PhD experience
• Track record of academic excellence, including first author research publications in high caliber journals.
• Deep knowledge and insight for integrating novel science and emerging technologies in the context of cell therapy and cellular immunology.
• Scientific expertise in receptor engineering with proliferation, fluorescent reporter, and FACS-based read-outs
• Technical expertise with primary human cell culture, cell engineering and multi-parameter flow cytometry
• Experience with cell therapy development (e.g. CAR-T/TCR T cells) is preferred
• Experience in the development of complex cell-based assays
• Experience working with external contract labs (CROs) is a plus
• Highly motivated, innovative, and well-organized
• Engaging and thoughtful team player with excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential given our collaborative approach
• Experience managing or mentoring junior scientists is desirable
• Proven ability to work independently and effectively plan and organize work activities, prioritize tasks, and meet schedule and deadlines