Intern, Medicinal Chemistry

At Bio Cryst, we share a deep commitment to improving the lives of people living with complement‑mediated and other rare diseases. For over three decades we’ve been guided by our passion for not settling for “ordinary” in our quest to develop novel medicines. We leverage our expertise in structure‑guided drug design to develop first‑in‑class or best‑in‑class oral small‑molecule and protein therapeutics, led by the efforts of our team of expert scientists in our Discovery Center of Excellence in Birmingham, Alabama.

Our global headquarters is in Durham, North Carolina and our employees span the globe across sites in multiple countries. We are proud of our culture of engagement and accountability that rewards people for innovative thinking and achievement of key objectives.

The Bio Cryst Internship Program is more than just an internship, it’s a launchpad for your future career. We believe the best learning happens through hands‑on experience, meaningful connections, and ownership of your summer projects. During your 12‑week internship, you’ll dive into biotech projects firsthand and see the impact your work has on patient lives.

• Hands‑On Work:
  Participate in projects that have real impact on the team and company.
• Onboarding & Orientation:
  Kick off the summer with an in‑person orientation at our headquarters to meet fellow interns and leaders.
• Professional Growth:
  Attend workshops, networking sessions, and join the Career Connections Program to sharpen your skills and explore career paths.
• Community & Culture:
  Join social events, team‑building activities, and volunteer opportunities to build relationships and give back.
• Intern Showcase:
  Share your work and impact at our in‑person Summer Intern Showcase.
• Access to Leaders:
  Gain insights directly from company leaders and innovators shaping the future of biotech.

This is an exciting opportunity to obtain hands‑on experience in a fast‑growing biotech company. As a Drug Discovery intern, you will function as a fully integrated member of our medicinal chemistry drug discovery team. The experience will include developing expertise in chemical lab technique and in instrumentation for purification and characterization. Interns will contribute meaningfully to their teams through challenging assignments and have the opportunity to collaborate with other functional groups within drug discovery departments.

This individual should bring energy every day and be eager to work collaboratively as we make hope a reality for patients with rare and orphan diseases. This position is for an undergraduate student interested in pursuing a career in biotech or an advanced degree in Chemistry.

• Understand and learn the principles and procedures to work safely in a chemistry lab.
• Perform bench chemistry targeting the application of chemistry methodology and multi‑step organic synthetic sequences to synthesize a desired novel, drug‑like, small organic molecules.
• Perform isolation and purification of reaction products using column chromatography, crystallization, or distillation.
• Conduct characterization of reaction products using various instrumentation such as LC/MS, NMR, optical rotation, and other biophysical characterization methods.
• Complete all procedures performed in a lab notebook and maintain proper documentation of all samples for which analytical data is required on a day‑to‑day basis.
• Learn how to search chemical literature to perform day‑to‑day activities.
• Learn integrated drug discovery process by collaborating with other discovery group team members to complete required tasks, including Biology, and life science groups.

• Currently enrolled in an accredited program and have completed at least one year of undergraduate studies by start date and have completed two semesters of organic chemistry and lab courses.
• Strong academic performance, minimum 3.0 GPA preferred.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Great multi‑tasking and organizational skills.
• Self‑starter who can work independently.
• Ability to be flexible and adjust quickly as priorities…