Associate Scientist - Protein Purification and Characterization Development (TE2)

Company: Ginkgo Bioworks
Location: Boston
Posted on: April 25, 2024

Job Description:

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe's growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.



Ginkgo is a high-growth, well-capitalized public biotech company in Boston that is redesigning the living world to solve some of the globe's growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe's growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our mission to "make biology easier to engineer" is poised to disrupt multiple industries by leveraging our innovative data, automation, and scale in biological engineering.
In order to support Ginkgo's mission of making biology easier to engineer, the Protein Purification and Characterization (PPC) team is seeking a motivated protein scientist with experience in protein purification (recombinant proteins, enzymes, AAVs, VLPs, antibodies) and related biochemical and biophysical characterization for applications across a broad range of chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The successful candidate will become an integral part of Ginkgo's programs, supporting the use of proteins in applications ranging from biosynthetic enzymes, food proteins, therapeutics and others.
Responsibilities

• 
  
• Science (Method and Assay Development)
  
  • 
    
  • Apply knowledge of chemical, biochemical, and biophysical principles to design methods and assays that can be executed in high throughput to purify proteins and measure protein abundance, function, and other properties
    
  • Develop novel purification methods to purify enzyme and non-enzyme proteins, protein nanoparticles (AAVs, VLPs), and biologics (antibodies and antibody-variants) at low, medium, and high throughput
    
  • Develop novel automated high-throughput methods for protein characterization based on electrophoresis, light-scattering, blotting, etc. to assess protein purity and biophysical characterization
    
  • Provide expert guidance leveraging a deep understanding of biological principles in optimizing soluble protein expression through strain engineering, strain selection, small-scale fermentation process and lysis optimization.
    
  • Understand the impact of microbial growth and fermentation on assays of interest and design small-scale fermentation conditions that will be predictive of assay results at larger scales
    
  • Design, execute, and analyze method development experiments to demonstrate proof of principle of new methods, de-risk sources of method interference or bias, optimize and validate the methods in high-throughput workcells
    
    
    
    
    • 
      
    • Science (Screen Execution)
      
      • 
        
      • Execute screens in high-throughput using a suite of automated instruments and integrated workcells, including liquid handlers, microplate readers, mass spectrometers, HPLCs, high to mid-dimensional screens, and others, working in high-density microplate formats (384- and 1536-well plates)
        
      • Coordinate with Core and Operations teams to support their work in Screen Execution
        
      • Use a variety of software packages and write scripts for programming liquid handlers (in-house and third-party tools), designing and viewing DNA sequences, processing data, and performing statistical analysis (Spotfire, Python, JMP) laboratory information management system (LIMS), database management (in-house and third-party tools), and third-party lab instrumentation and automation software
        
        
      • Software
        
        • 
          
        • Use a variety of software packages and write scripts for programming liquid handlers (in-house and third-party tools), designing and viewing DNA sequences, processing data, and performing statistical analysis (Spotfire, Python, JMP) laboratory information management system (LIMS), database management (in-house and third-party tools), and third-party lab instrumentation and automation software
          
          
        • Data science, data management, and statistical analysis
          
          • 
            
          • Use Spotfire to analyze and apply advanced statistical techniques to method development experiments and executed high-throughput screens, and upload these results in a structured, standardized format into company databases
            
          • Build robust applications capable of managing complex, large volumes of data resulting in new biological insights
            
          • Apply statistical Design of Experiment principles to design assay optimization experiments and analyze the results to identify optimal conditions for future experiments and screens
            
            
          • Automation
            
            • 
              
            • Establish understanding of automated liquid handlers (Hamilton Star series, Prime, Echo, Tempest, FPLC, HPLC, Lynx) to be able to create and execute new liquid handling procedures and independently troubleshoot errors that arise during execution
              
            • Understand and incorporate the constraints of automated liquid handlers into experiment and procedure design, and understand how different instruments may introduce bias into experimental data
              
              
            • Project scoping/planning/sales
              
              • 
                
              • Work with Commercial teams in planning and scoping new projects, meet with potential and current customers to understand their needs, and propose both standardized and bespoke solutions to their problems, review proposals, and plan project timelines in alignment with customer requirements and milestone deadlines
                
                
              • Project management
                
                • 
                  
                • Within a project, work with the project leader to coordinate on strategic elements of the project that may impact, but are not necessarily within the scope of work of, HTS. This can include strategic components of genetic design, protein engineering, cell transformation, analytical chemistry teams, and fermentation
                  
                • In some cases, may serve as project lead for internal development projects or projects that heavily lean on HTS capabilities
                  
                  
                • Communication
                  
                  • 
                    
                  • Communicate to a broad range of stakeholders, including providing detailed technical communications to scientific stakeholders and high-level, abstracted, accessible communications to leadership, executive, and external audiences, including customers
                    
                    
                    Minimum Requirements
                    
                    • 
                      
                    • Typically requires a Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 2 years of related experience; or an advanced degree without experience; or equivalent work experience.
                      
                    • Demonstrated experience in protein engineering, protein purification or protein biochemistry. Hands on experience in chromatography and non-chromatography based protein purification methods and method optimization
                      
                    • Demonstrated ability to deliver results while working independently as a laboratory scientist
                      
                      Preferred Capabilities and Experience
                      
                      • 
                        
                      • Established capability to design, conduct, optimize, and execute novel analytical assay development efforts in the lab supporting HTS and project deliverables.
                        
                      • Experience developing methods and assays for molecular interactions, protein modifications, protein stability, protein binding and/or biophysical techniques & approaches (e.g., SPR, BLI, DSF, CD, etc.)
                        
                      • Experience with automated liquid handlers eg. FPLC, HPLC, TECAN, Hamilton, Lynx etc
                        
                      • Understanding of microbial metabolism and physiology
                        
                      • Experience using laboratory automation equipment
                        
                      • Experience in computational analysis of biological data and large data sets using general-purpose programming languages (such as Python, R, or Matlab)
                        
                      • Familiarity with software and statistical platforms for documenting (ELN) and analyzing large data sets (e.g., JMP, Spotfire, or MODDE pro/DoE)
                        
                      • Ability to clear and concisely present technical information to audiences of broad stakeholders
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        To learn more about Ginkgo, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com/press/ or check out some curated press below:
                        
                        • 
                          
                        • What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)
                          
                        • Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)
                          
                        • Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: 'If we try, we can win' (CNBC)
                          
                        • Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)
                          
                        • Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)
                          
                        • Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)
                          
                        • The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)
                          
                        • Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)
                          
                        • Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)
                          
                        • Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)
                          
                          
                          We also feel that it's important to point out the obvious here - there's a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.
                          
                          We're developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can - and will - impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it's something we'll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it's critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.
                          
                          It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees, employment applicants, and EOE disability/vet.
                          
                          Privacy Notice
                          I understand that I am applying for employment with Ginkgo Bioworks and am being asked to provide information in connection with my application. I further understand that Ginkgo gathers this information through a third-party service provider and that Ginkgo may also use other service providers to assist in the application process. Ginkgo may share my information with such third-party service providers in connection with my application and for the start of employment. Ginkgo will treat my information in accordance with Ginkgo's . By submitting this job application, I am acknowledging that I have reviewed and agree to Ginkgo's as well as the privacy policies of the third-party service providers used by Ginkgo's associated with the application process.
                          

Keywords: Ginkgo Bioworks, Malden , Associate Scientist - Protein Purification and Characterization Development (TE2), Other , Boston, Massachusetts