R-180790: Postdoctoral Fellow - Nanoparticle Immunotherapies

Location: Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Competitive Salary, Bonus & Benefits Package

Do you have expertise in, and passion for, materials engineering and precision nanomedicine? Would you like to apply your expertise to impact the field of cell-based therapies in a company that follows the science and turns ideas into life changing medicines? Then join our Nanomedicine team and unlock the power of what science can do.

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led, patient-centred biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovering, developing, and commercialising prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious diseases. But we’re more than a global leading pharmaceutical company. At AstraZeneca, we're dedicated to being a Great Place to Work and empowering employees to push the boundaries of science and fuel their entrepreneurial spirit.

About our Postdoc Programme

Bring your expertise, apply your knowledge, follow the science, and make a difference. AstraZeneca’s Postdoc Programme is for self-motivated individuals looking to deliver exciting projects in an encouraging, engaging, and innovative environment. You'll work with multidisciplinary scientific teams from a diverse set of backgrounds and a world-class academic mentor specifically aligned to your project. Our postdocs are respected as specialists, encouraged to speak up, and supported to share their research at conferences, publish papers, achieve their goals.

Make a more meaningful impact in your career, with greater ownership and accountability to make a contribution whilst making a difference to the lives of our patients!

This is a 3-year programme.

About the Opportunity

Breakthroughs in nanoparticle technology have expanded the list of druggable targets and deliverable modalities. Through smart nanoparticle design, therapeutics can be precisely delivered within the body with minimal off-target effects, directed intracellular trafficking, and overall improved potency and safety.

In this position, you will join our Nanomedicine team developing targeted nanoparticle therapies with a focus on application in immunotherapies. The rapidly growing field of CAR-T cell therapies could synergize with advanced targeted nanomedicine technologies to bring next-generation immunotherapies to the clinic. Current CAR-T cell therapies require individualized and laborious ex-vivo procedures for production of therapeutic end-products, which could be simplified through application of nanotechnology for CAR-T cell production in vivo. Various groups have proven this concept through viral delivery of CAR genes to T lymphocytes; however, application of targeted nanoparticle technology could further simplify this process with synthetic vectors.

Our Nanomedicine team has extensive experience in targeted nanoparticle design and nucleic acid delivery and maintains a vibrant and collaborative research environment. You will also have the full support of internal experts in nanoparticle science, imaging, antibody design, and immunoncology and access to key laboratory resources including the Imaging Core and Flow Cytometry Core.

Project Focus

The focus of this position will be targeted immune cell delivery of CAR gene. Targeting approaches for T-cells and other immune cells will be assessed using nanoparticle technologies. The project will provide valuable insight on immune cell targeting which could easily be expanded to additional immune cell-based technologies.

The postdoc will report to Dr Morgan Urello (Associate Principal Scientist), an expert in nanoparticle design, characterization, and application with over 14 years of experience in material science and gene delivery. Dr Urello completed her doctoral work at the University of Delaware where she developed and patented a nanoparticle-based gene therapy for wound repair. As an AZ post-doctoral fellow, she also developed and patented a peptide nanoparticle platform which has been validated in several applications including tumor-, lung-, and muscle-targeted delivery. Dr. Urello also has had considerable experience supervising scientists and as a UD Chemistry and Biology Interface (CBI) mentor.

What You’ll Do

Our postdoc will work directly with our specialist Nanomedicine team developing targeted nanoparticle therapies. The project is multidisciplinary with opportunities to strengthen and apply current skills as well as expand into new areas of expertise.

Key Duties & Responsibilities:

• Nanoparticle assembly and characterization
• Activity assessment in cell-based assays such as fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry
• Anticancer activity studies in vivo

Our postdoc will have access to our chemistry and materials lab, cell culture facilities, imaging core, ligand libraries, and CAR constructs and the support of experts in each field.

Qualification, Skills & Experience

Our Postdoc programme is aimed at individuals who are either:

• Within 5-years of obtaining their doctoral degree (PhD, DVM, or MD) - PhD already awarded, or
• Students, soon to obtain doctoral degrees (the PhD must be awarded within 6 months of joining AstraZeneca)

Essential Requirements

• A PhD or equivalent in Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Biology, Material Engineering, Biochemistry, Immunology
• Extensive knowledge of material science, bioconjugation, & nanotechnology
• Experience of immune cell isolation
• Familiarity with techniques like ELISA
• Experience of flow cytometry & fluorescent Imaging
• Comprehensive immunology background
• An understanding of CAR-therapies

Desirable Requirements

• Experience with nanoparticle preparation/characterization
• Experience with intravital imaging
• Basic mouse handling skills
• An understanding of nucleic acid delivery challenges

Reasons to Apply

This is a fantastic opportunity to develop and apply innovative strategies to drug design. You will work in an industry-leading group with a strong publication track record and be supported by various teams.

As a respected specialist, we will empower you to take appropriate risks, lead the project and “run with it”, along with providing you will all the support you need.

Why AstraZeneca

The unique positioning of this postdoc within a pharmaceutical company such as AZ, means that you will be able to access large datasets which are not available in the public domain. Moreover, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that methods and techniques you develop will not only be published but will also be used within AZ after the postdoc position concludes, in real-life projects - and that ultimately the work you do will directly impact patients’ lives!

As a key member of a research group and taking a leading role on a Postdoctoral project, we expect regular attendance - a minimum of 3 days per week on the AstraZeneca campus. For laboratory-based scientists, this may be higher.

Given the unique positioning of our Postdoctoral researchers, you may have an additional opportunity to spend some time with an external academic mentor. In this instance, you may be required to spend some of your time working alongside them at their facility as driven by the research project. Your flexibility to meet the needs of the research and the scope of the project is required, and we also look to support you with flexibility in accordance with our standard work policies.

Next Steps

If your passion is science and you want to be part of a team that makes a bigger impact on patients’ lives, then there’s no better place to be.

This advert will be running from Monday, 30th October 2023 and, we welcome your application as soon as possible, but ahead of the scheduled closing date of Sunday, 21st January 2024. In the event, that we identify suitable candidates ahead of the scheduled closing date, we reserve the right to withdraw the vacancy earlier than published.

Find Out More

AstraZeneca – https://www.astrazeneca.com/what-science-can-do/topics/next-generation-therapeutics/developing-the-next-generation-of-drug-delivery-technologies.html#tissue-targeted

AZ’s Postdoc Programme: https://careers.astrazeneca.com/postdocs-astrazeneca

Life at AstraZeneca: https://careers.astrazeneca.com/life-at-astrazeneca

This is what we’re made of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmFx_jr2eFo&t=2s

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We follow all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.

AstraZeneca requires all UA employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but will consider requests for reasonable accommodations as required by applicable law.

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics (e.g. race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status). We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.

AstraZeneca requires all US employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but will consider requests for reasonable accommodations as required by applicable law.