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Scientist, Assay Development Team
Based in Wetherby
Avacta Life Sciences is developing the Affimer technology as an antibody
mimetic platform to meet the growing demand for the next generation of affinity
reagents and biotherapeutics that will compete with monoclonal antibodies and
other antibody mimetics in key applications. Affimer technology is a novel
protein scaffold based on the Cystatin A protein fold. Avacta has a strong IP
position, has generated numerous Affimer binders with high affinity from naïve
phage display and has demonstrated acceptable drug-like properties of the
technology in recent pK and efficacy studies. Key benefits of the Affimer
technology are its small size, ease of formatting, high expression yields (even of
large multimeric structures) and stability.
The Company raised £21M in 2015 to fund the development of a pipeline of
Affimer candidates in immuno-oncology and for technology development.
Avacta’s activities for the exploitation of the Affimer technology in research and
diagnostics applications are based at our head office in Wetherby whilst our
therapeutic R&D activities are based in Cambridge.
We require a highly motivated Assay Development Scientist who has had
previous experience of assay development using antibodies, antibody fragments
or non-antibody scaffold technologies in either the CRO or biotech sector. Your
role will be to setup and develop a range of in vitro assays (such as ELISA, cellbinding assays etc.) to support Affimer characterisation and the validation of our
technology in industry-standard assays.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
 Design, develop and validate assays including sandwich ELISA, LFD assays,
cell binding and cell-based activity assays.
 Perform routine cell and biochemical techniques, cell-based assays, and cell
line analysis.
 Perform functional cell assays (e.g. survival, proliferation, apoptosis, cytokine
secretion, cell signalling)
 Present work/data internally and write scientific reports
 Maintaining a current and accurate laboratory record (lab notebook) of all
activities
Essential skills and previous experience
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A BSc/PhD in cell or molecular biology.
A minimum of 2 years’ industrial laboratory experience of working with and
developing assays using antibodies, fragments and/or non-antibody scaffold
technologies
Being able to demonstrate a strong ability to develop target binding (e.g.
ELISA, MSD, Alpha-screen and/or HTRF) and phenotypic based assays
(phosphorylation, cell proliferation etc.) using a range of techniques (e.g.
Western blot, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy and IHC)
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Previous experience of molecular biology or small scale protein expression
and purification would be an advantage but is not essential
Motivated self-starter who can work independently and collaboratively in a
dynamic team environment with a conscientious attitude and enthusiasm
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to interpret
complex data
Organised with an ability to work well under pressure and to challenging
timelines
Benefits:
 Salary band £25,000-£35,000
 Company Pension Scheme
 Eye Care Scheme
 Childcare Voucher Scheme
 Performance Related Share Option Scheme
 25 days holiday in addition to bank holidays
 Free onsite parking
For further details or to apply please email your CV to [email protected]