Research Associate / Senior Research Associate, Biology - TEMP

COMPANY

Volastra Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in New York City, formed from the laboratory of Dr. Lewis Cantley, along with Drs. Olivier Elemento and Samuel Bakhoum. Volastra is dedicated to the discovery and development of treatments for patients with cancer. The Company's therapies will target novel pathways and apply insights gained from its scientific founders into chromosomal instability (CIN) and its clear association with the formation, progression, and maintenance of disease. Leveraging these insights we will identify and quickly validate novel therapies to shift the treatment paradigm in the toughest to treat cancers.

Volastra has raised $45M in funding to date. This includes capital from top US and European venture firms, including Vida, Polaris, Droia, and Arch. Current funding will look to advance a lead program into the clinic, advance another program to IND-enabling studies and strengthen the platform to identify a broader pipeline of candidates. The company has a world class scientific advisory board including two Nobel Laureates as well as a highly experienced senior leadership team. This includes the CEO, CSO and senior leaders with expertise in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, immunology, and operations.

In addition, Volastra has recently announced a multi-year up to $1.1B drug discovery collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. This high visibility and important collaboration will leverage Volastra's proprietary CINtech platform, to identify CIN-related, synthetic lethal targets as drug candidates. The success of this collaboration will be critical to the growth of the company.

The company operates out of 15,000 square feet of office and state-of-the-art laboratory space in West Harlem, New York City, within easy traveling distance of Columbia, Cornell, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and all most other areas of the city and New Jersey.

Please visit www.volastratx.com for more information

JOB DESCRIPTION

The role of RA or Sr. RA at Volastra will work closely with the scientific team to achieve the company's scientific and strategic plan. Volastra is seeking a highly motivated researcher for an in vitro biology lab-based role. The RA will have responsibility for designing and executing experiments as part of the scientific team to ensure the advancement of key programs in the Volastra pipeline. Our ideal candidate is an independent thinker with excellent communication skills who may provide insights towards experiment design and interpretation and is also a team player who may take on responsibilities outside his/her scope of work. The candidate should have a track-record of consistent experimentation, experience with in vitro assays relevant to cancer biology, integrity, and tangible contributions to biopharmaceutical drug programs and/or peer-reviewed publications. Project responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Validation of key targets using the company's unique platform centered on CIN and metastasis
• Interrogating the biology of CIN and metastasis to yield new mechanistic insights
• Developing assays to best evaluate therapeutic potential of CIN-targeting therapies
• Using measures of CIN to build novel datasets

Required Skills

• Cancer cell line culture and genetic engineering (Lentiviral transduction, overexpression, RNAi and/or CRISPR/Cas9)
• Cell-based phenotypic assays such as proliferation or cytotoxicity
• Molecular biology techniques such as PCR, RT-qPCR and Western Blot
• Data analysis and presentation through software such as Graphpad Prism, Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint
• Time management to independently meet deadlines

Preferred Skills (but not required)

• Confocal and/or high-content microscopy including live imaging
• Flow Cytometry
• Benchling inventory/registry/ELN system

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in a relevant field such as cell biology or cancer biology
• 2+ years cancer biology laboratory experience in an academic and/or industry setting
• Ability to work independently
• Excellent communication skills

Volastra is a lean team of dedicated individuals working to advance therapies for patients with metastatic cancer. As such, the Scientist will from time to time have the opportunity to work on projects and take on responsibilities that may fall outside his/her scope of work.