Associate Scientist - Cell and Gene Therapy

Kyowa Kirin is a fast-growing global specialty pharmaceutical company that applies state-of-the-art biotechnologies to discover and deliver novel medicines in four disease areas: bone and mineral; intractable hematologic; hematology oncology; and rare disease. A Japan-based company, our goal is to translate science into smiles by delivering therapies where no adequate treatments currently exist, working from drug discovery to product development and commercialization.

In North America, we are headquartered in Princeton, NJ, with offices in California, North Carolina, and Mississauga, Ontario.

The Associate Scientist, Discovery Core Function will support Kyowa Kirin’s cell therapy pipeline programs in a highly collaborative environment. This position will play a key role in developing next-generation cell and gene therapy programs by providing support to pipeline projects and evaluating and implementing new technologies.

• Support Cell and Gene Therapy pipeline projects by working with Project Leads to enable gene editing and generate new molecular workflows.
• Serve as a Project Lead for technology themed projects if needed.
• Identify, evaluate, and implement new gene editing technologies.
• Contribute scientific and technical knowledge to project and support teams.
• Design, initiate, and optimize molecular, cell based, and analytical methods to support the Research, Technical Operations, and In Vivo Pharmacology teams.
• Maintain compliance with regulatory guidelines and internal standards, and prepare necessary documentation for project reviews (proposals, monthly, quarterly, annual, or study reports), patent applications, publications, and/or animal, biosafety, or human subject protocols.
• Present research at project meetings and efficiently record experiments and data in laboratory notebooks, databases and monthly reports.

Education BS required, MA/MS preferred in a related scientific discipline. Knowledge and background in Molecular Biology, Bioengineering, Immunology, Hematology-Oncology is a plus.

Experience 8 years of hands‑on experience and in-depth knowledge of cell and gene therapy techniques and gene editing is required. Extensive experience in gene editing technologies, including CRISPR, base editing, prime editing, or transposase/recombinase-based editing is required. Strong background in molecular biology, with practical experience in NGS, molecular analytical development, gene editing design, and molecular cloning. Expertise in cell culture methodologies, development, and characterization of cell therapy products including HSCs, iPSCs, and/or CAR‑T cells.

Extensive experience in the molecular characterization of cell therapies, with a strong preference for expertise in NGS. Familiarity with CAR design, engineering, screening, and assay development is highly desirable. Experience in developing high-throughput screening platforms for cells, proteins, or antibodies is preferred. Background in antibody/protein engineering, protein production, and purification is highly preferred. Experience in virus production, transduction, and analytics is a valuable plus.

Technical Skills Strong knowledge of industry standard gene editing techniques and analytics including CRISPR, guide RNA design and screens, indel analysis, knock-out and knock-in analysis, NGS, ddPCR. Solid understanding of cellular, molecular, and immunological techniques including cloning, ELISA, multi-color flow cytometry, in vitro functional assays, cell based assays, reporter assays. Experience in cell engineering processes including knowledge of cell line generation workflows and experience developing therapeutic engineered cells such as CAR‑T.

Expertise in cell culture techniques including culture of primary cells, iPSCs, HSCs, and cell lines from multiple species and cell manipulation techniques including transfection, nucleofection, and transduction. Experience with cell characterization including multicolor flow cytometry, FACS, MACS, and single cell isolation techniques. Experience in antibody or protein production, purification, and analysis is a plus. Proficient in MS Office Suite.

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