Principal Scientist - Structural Biology

PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST - STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY

General Summary

Southern Research is seeking a Ph.D. level scientist with a passion for drug discovery, protein biochemistry, and structural determination of therapeutically relevant targets. This individual will accelerate our drug discovery pipeline through protein expression, purification, characterization, X-ray crystallography and Cryo-EM. Experience in structural characterization of membrane proteins would be preferred. Southern Research has resources for enabling both crystallographic and cryo-EM (Tecnai F20 with Gatan K2 direct electron detector) structure determination through the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to build a structural biology team to work with a highly collaborative group of chemists, computational scientists and biologists.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Plans, designs, initiates and directs internal research programs for in-house or external studies using high-throughput screening, X-ray crystallography, Cryo-EM, and other biophysical methods.
• Acts as organization's subject matter expert in the area of structural biology and x-ray crystallography.
• Coordinates these activities with members from Biology, Chemistry, and various project teams.
• Collaborates with computational chemists and the chemistry and biology teams utilizing solved structures for rational design and SAR study of lead molecules.
• Extensive participation and leadership of project teams that focus on the generation of chemical matter for a target and the development and selection of clinical candidates.
• Cultivates collaborations within SR and throughout the UAB research community.
• Develops an externally supported research program to help support the growth of the x-ray crystallography and protein purification laboratory.
• Observes appropriate safety and study requirements by reading, understanding and following appropriate Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Requirements/Minimum Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biophysics, or related discipline plus at least 15 years of relevant experience.
• Experience using state-of-the-art protein expression and characterization methods (e.g. NMR, ITC, thermal shift)
• Experience with structure determination of small molecule: protein; preferably membrane protein and of macro molecular complexes
• Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate across multiple scientific disciplines.
• Experience with complex problems in which analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of multiple factors
• Exercise judgment within broadly defined practices and policies in selecting methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining results
• Ability to determine approaches and procedures to new assignments and must be capable of providing guidance to peers.

Work Environment & Conditions

This position is a laboratory environment and requires the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) including:

• Safety glasses
• Laboratory coats
• Nitrile and latex gloves (varies based on tasks)

Physical Demands

• Ability to perform work utilizing a computer for extended periods of time.
• Ability to sit for extended periods of time without being able to leave the work area.