Company Summary:

Arana Biosciences is one of the latest companies founded through Flagship Pioneering’s venture creation engine, where companies such as Moderna Therapeutics and Evelo Therapeutics were conceived and created. Since Flagship’s founding in 2000, the firm has originated and fostered the development of nearly 100 scientific ventures resulting in $19+ billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued patents, and more than 50 clinical trials for novel therapeutic agents. Arana Biosciences is integrating the latest developments in molecular biology and plant biology to create a new platform technology that enables adaptive, targeted, and sustainable solutions in agriculture.

Position Summary:

Are you a highly motivated and driven researcher that wants to contribute to developing products? We are seeking a determined, impact-driven Senior Scientist, Delivery and Transformation with a results-driven attitude and an eagerness for continued innovation. The ideal candidate must be highly collaborative and self-motivated.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and use Agrobacterium, biolistic, nanoparticle, and viral delivery in various plant systems.
• Develop/implement assays for evaluating functionality, targeting efficiency, and potency of novel delivery modalities.
• Lead innovative projects to expand upon and enhance the delivery of Arana’s platform technology.
• Identify key areas for optimization and automation implementation for the delivery platform.
• Contribute to a dynamic, exciting culture that embraces teamwork and innovation.
• Present scientific findings in cross-functional project team meetings, write protocols and reports, and document results in electronic laboratory notebooks.
• Provide coaching and mentorship to research associates and junior scientists.

Qualifications:

• PhD plus 5+ years of postdoc/industry experience or equivalent experience in plant biology, molecular biology, biotechnology, genetics or a related field.
• Experience in one or multiple transformation techniques, including Agrobacterium, biolistics, nanoparticle, and viral delivery.
• Track record of success developing transformation platforms in species not previously transformed.
• Expertise in handling plant tissues, bioassay development, and method optimization.
• Expertise in molecular biology techniques, including in vitro transcription, qPCR, ELISA, and Western blot.
• Experience with protein, DNA, and RNA isolation and purification.
• Familiarity with various nanoparticle platforms and how to use them in plant biotechnology.
• Familiarity with RNA biology, RNA encapsulation, RNA nanotechnology is preferred.
• Plant tissue culture expertise.
• Proven track record of success creating knowledge from raw data at scale.

Location: Cambridge, MA

More About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life sciences companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $50B in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $2.2B in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $18B of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises transformative companies, including Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Indigo Ag, Invaio Sciences, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Generate Biomedicines, Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Senda Biosciences and Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX).

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.