Who We Are
Technology has transformed almost every single aspect of our lives. Yet, it still takes 12 years to develop a drug. Today thousands of diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people have no effective treatment. Accelerating the pace of bringing effective, new medicines to patients is one of the greatest opportunities for humanity.
Our mission is to develop better drugs, faster using technology. We have built an end-to-end technology-driven drug discovery platform centered around one of the field’s largest human genomics databases in neuroscience. We use aspects of machine learning to map the complex causes of disease and turn those insights into promising drug candidates on our internal biology and chemistry platforms. We are developing drugs to treat some of the biggest medical challenges today: ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Our first drug entered the clinic in October 2022 as a new treatment for ALS and was discovered entirely from our platform.
We have raised $134M from top tier investors (e.g. BlackRock, Eli Lilly, Merck, Section 32, Threshold Ventures, Y Combinator, etc) and in 2021 we announced a $706M deal with Eli Lilly. We are a team of data scientists, neuroscientists, and drug developers united around an audacious vision: to build the next Genentech of the digital age.
Who You Are
Verge Genomics is a cutting-edge biotechnology company that is revolutionizing the field of drug discovery. Our mission is to develop new treatments for currently incurable diseases using data from human tissues and advanced machine learning techniques. We are looking for a talented and passionate Tissue and Data Acquisition Specialist to join our Translational Genomics team.
You will lead a number of cross functional projects and play a key role in our target discovery efforts. You will act as a thought leader – reading literature, designing experiments, and communicating relevant information to internal and external stakeholders. You will also collect high-quality tissue and data from banks and repositories, coordinate public data landscaping efforts, manage -omics data generation, and ensure that all tissue and data is accurately collected, stored, and shared.
To excel in this role, you must have a strong background in disease biology, strong written and verbal communication skills, and strong project management and organizational skills. If you are a highly motivated individual with a passion for using cutting-edge technologies to solve complex biological problems, we want to hear from you. Join us at Verge Genomics and help us change the world of drug discovery.
Your outcomes:
Form new relationships with tissue and data repositories and gather information on their inventories, sample-associated clinical metadata, and acquisition process.Coordinate public -omics data landscaping activities for select diseases.Act as internal thought leader and project manager for select diseases.Evaluate omics data providers and technologies.Author tissue applications, contracts, progress reports, and publications.Based on information that you gather, design and execute tissue acquisition and omics data generation strategies for select diseases.
You will support the business through:
Understanding Disease Biology
You will keep your team informed regarding known genetic drivers of disease, pathways involved, patented drugs, and known therapeutic targets.You will perform diligence on targets, linking them to disease, developing therapeutic hypotheses, determining their expression patterns in tissue, and identifying any safety risks associated with their modulation.
Tissue and Data Acquisition
You will seek out new tissue repositories and form relationships with them, learning about their inventory, how samples are processed and stored, what associated patient metadata they have, and what their contract terms are like.You will represent Verge before, during, and after the acquisition process, completing applications, answering committee questions, and providing progress reports.You will coordinate public data landscaping and QC efforts, organizing data for internal target discovery efforts.
Generating omics data
You will develop and maintain external relationships with -omics data generating partners (CRO’s and academic collaborators) and evaluate their capabilities.You will work with our -omics data providers to ensure that tissue is acquired in the correct mass, quantities, and form to enable high-quality omics data generation.You will coordinate the logistics, contracts, and documentation associated with tissue shipment and omics data generation, and you will coordinate with our computational biology team to organize, review, and QC incoming omics data.
You Must Have...
- A Ph.D. in biology or a related field OR 5 years of experience studying central or peripheral disease biology, with a preference for gut and skin-related immunological disorders, or neurodegenerative disease.
- Exceptional written, verbal, communication, and organizational skills; able to influence widely across diverse internal and external audiences.
- Familiarity with one or more -omics data types or technologies (e.g., bulk or single-nuclei RNA-Seq, long-read RNA-Seq, proteomics, genomics).
- Demonstrated experience linking therapeutic targets (e.g., genes, proteins, receptors) to disease through known interactions or pathways.
- A flexible and resilient mindset – you must be able to adjust easily to new or changing circumstances and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
- A focus on patient impact and desire to develop meaningful therapeutics.
You May Have...
- Experience using Benchling software.
- Experience handling and processing human tissues.
- Experience with nucleic acid extraction and QC and/or library prep for -omics data generation.
- Experience with R and Python for basic bioinformatic analyses.
- Experience interacting with human tissue banks.
- Data organization and familiarity with database language and queries (e.g. SQL, neo4j).
What’s In It For You...
- Flexibility with respect to where and how you work (remote, hybrid, or onsite).
- Ground floor at a startup with high growth potential.
- The creative freedom to think and work independently.
- A company with a great culture that truly values its employees.
- Competitive benefits.
Compensation & Benefits at Verge Genomics:
Our target starting salary for successful US-based applicants for this role will vary from $100,00 to $143,200 depending upon the skillset and experience of the candidate. To determine starting pay, we consider multiple job-related factors including a candidate’s skills, education and experience, the level at which they are actually hired, market demand, business needs, and internal parity. We may also adjust this range in the future based on market data.
This role is eligible for participation in our Annual Performance Bonus Plan (based on company targets by role level and annual company performance) and all employees are offered Equity, subject to the terms of those plans and associated policies.
In addition, Verge Genomics also provides our employees:
*Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
*401(k) plan with employer matching for contributions
*Disability insurance, Life insurance, Dependant Care FSA and Healthcare FSA
*Unlimited paid time off
*Paid parental leave
*Access to free onsite fitness center
*Free snacks and lunch for employees who work onsite
*WFH stipend for employees who work remotely
Help us revolutionize the way drugs are discovered & developed:
The startup nature of Verge Genomics provides multiple growth opportunities into other areas of the company. As one of the early employees at Verge, your work will have a direct impact on the foundation of a groundbreaking new drug development model.
