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 this 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 organisation Balvi.

As our first program moves into the clinic, we are beginning preclinical work on a variety of novel mRNA vaccines and therapeutics in parallel. As such, we are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented researcher to join our Computational Design Team as a Junior Scientist/Scientist – Protein & RNA Design to design broadly effective next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. This is a unique opportunity to operate on the frontier of our understanding of the physiological impact of cutting-edge protein design and nucleic acid modalities. This position reports to the VP of Protein Design.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Literature review, including locating and summarizing the latest research in fields of interest, retrieving specific papers or other peer-reviewed sources, and, when required, formulating recommendations on the applicability of this research to PopVax’s projects 

• Identify data sources and execute new project ideas into a quick-working prototype

• Provide high-level scientific expertise for new research projects, contributing to all phases of a project

• Analyse and interpret challenging clinical and non-clinical data

• Keeping up-to-date on best practices and latest developments in vaccine design 

• Produce high-quality and detailed documentation for all projects in a structured manner

• Assist senior team members in antigen selection and design for eliciting broad immune response

• Assist senior team members in designing and optimising mRNA sequence for stability and efficient and accurate translation for a given protein sequence

The ideal candidate will also have:

• Masters in Bioinformatics or a related field with experience in structural (protein) bioinformatics is required for junior scientists. PhD or 4+ years of industrial experience are required for the Scientist position.

• Excellent literature search and reviewing skills

• Experience in protein structure modelling and visualization

• Experience in protein-protein docking

• Experience in molecular dynamics simulation

• Experience analyzing raw data from next-generation sequencing data.

• Knowledge of central dogma and translation regulation 

• Proficiency in working in LINUX environment and in at least one of the standard scientific programming languages like Python or R

• Knowledge of biological databases and basic bioinformatics tools such as BLAST, Multiple Sequence Alignment, etc. 

• Basic knowledge of immunology 

• Working understanding of machine learning tools

• Comfortable in working as a team and capable of working independently 

• Yes I can attitude