PopVax is an Indian full-stack biotechnology company developing novel mRNA vaccines and therapeutics using computational protein design. Our first vaccine is a next-generation COVID-19 booster which will enter a first-in-human Phase I clinical trial in the U.S. early next year – this vaccine is intended to broaden protection against both current and predicted future SARS-CoV-2 variants, reducing the possibility of a new mutation in the virus suddenly causing another massive wave of infection. We have a preclinical pipeline of 6 additional novel vaccine candidates built on our mRNA-LNP platform that we will be taking into clinical trials over the next few years. Our work to date has been funded primarily via project agreements totalling 10+ million USD with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Vitalik Buterin's public health & biosecurity organization Balvi.

We are looking for an exceptional molecular and cell biologist to work on our wet lab team across a number of projects, from mRNA IVT to stable cell line generation and maintenance to mAb production.

As we expand our operations, we are looking to hire molecular and cellular biologists for two different shift schedules. Please indicate in your response which of the two shifts you would prefer.

Working Days and Shift Hours: 

Option 1 [Evening Shift] : Monday to Saturday (2 pm to 10pm) with dinner and return transportation provided.

Option 2 [Weekend Shift] : Thursday to Tuesday (9 am to 5pm) with Wednesday as the weekly off day. Lunch will be provided on campus.

QUALIFICATIONS

• PhD in molecular or cell biology or similar, or a masters degree in a relevant field with 3+ years of additional experience

• Experience with DNA and RNA extraction

• Experience with plasmid extraction at various scales

• Experience with vector transformation in DH5-Alpha or similar bacterial strains

• Extensive experience with PCR techniques — inverse, touch down/up, gradient, long amplicons, difficult targets, Taq man, Realtime PCR

• Extensive experience with cloning methods — cut and paste, Gibson assembly, Gateway, In-Fusion

• Extensive experience handling, maintaining, and stocking various cell lines, in particular HEK 293T, HeLa, and MCF-7, as well as suspension cell lines such as the Expi and FreeStyle series

• Experience performing transfection, both chemical and electroporation, at various scales

• Experience with achieving protein expression in bacteria, yeast, insect, and mammalian cells, and (optionally) protein separation and purification

• Experience performing protein estimation assays such as Bradford, BCA, or ELISA

• Experience estimating relative protein expression via Western blot

• Experience with FPLC systems such as Cytiva’s Akta series or Bio-Rad’s NGC line is a plus

We offer very competitive compensation, comprehensive health insurance covering immediate family (including pre-existing conditions), and, most importantly, a collaborative work environment focused on solving the cutting-edge multidisciplinary challenges of our novel mRNA platform.