Associate Scientist or Scientist, In Vivo Cancer Biology

• Full-time position
• Competitive compensation (Salary, Benefits & Options)
• 430 E 29th Street, New York, NY

Waypoint Bio is a biotech startup building the next generation of cell therapies for solid tumors. Traditional cell therapy preclinical development faces a trade-off between in vitro approaches that are fast but inaccurate, and in vivo approaches that are accurate but slow and expensive. Using our proprietary platform combining spatial biology, pooled screening, in silico protein engineering, and machine learning, we can obtain both depth and breadth when screening cell therapy candidates – speed without compromising on in vivo accuracy.

Our team is highly collaborative, interdisciplinary, and shares the mission of developing novel immune cell therapies to benefit patients' lives.

We are seeking a highly-motivated, creative scientist who thrives in a fast-paced and collaborative environment. The ideal candidate will have expertise designing and using cutting-edge in vivo mouse models to test the efficacy & safety of cancer immunotherapies. They will also have deep technical knowledge of the immune system, the tumor microenvironment, and the design of novel immunotherapies. In this position, you will design and implement in vivo assays to assess the anti-tumor activity of CAR-T cells, develop novel immunocompetent and xenograft in vivo cancer models, and apply Waypoint’s multiplexed imaging platform to perform pooled in vivo screens of cell therapies.

You will work collaboratively with computational and wet-lab scientists on every step of the pre-clinical therapeutic development process, from the initial design and screening of cell therapy constructs, subsequent ranking & filtering, and further optimization to obtain finalized therapeutic candidates.

• Compare different mouse models of solid tumors to identify those that best mimic human disease (CDX vs. PDX, subcutaneous vs. orthotopic implantation, etc).
• Design and perform all steps of in vivo solid tumor experiments to assess CAR T efficacy and safety (including injections and surgeries for tumor implantation, tumor growth measurements, and harvesting organs for subsequent ex vivo analysis)
• Perform in vivo mouse studies with Waypoint’s high throughput CAR-T screening platform.
• Design and perform experiments to analyze PK/PD biomarkers from in vivo studies.
• Actively engage in prioritizing key milestones and developing appropriate timelines.
• Provide conceptual input on in vivo experimental design and interpretation in a team setting.
• Keep detailed scientific records in an electronic lab notebook and actively contribute towards the organization of the lab.

• Ph.D. in Immunology, Cancer Biology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Genetics, or a related field. Alternatively, Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree with relevant experience.
• 2+ years of academic or industry experience working on mouse models of disease.
• Technical expertise in mouse injection methods (IV, SubQ, IP), organ harvesting, animal phenotyping, and adherence to IACUC protocols.
• An excellent scientific track record with published papers using animal models of disease.
• Superb organizational abilities and precise scientific record keeping in electronic lab notebooks.
• Experience with mammalian cell tissue culture.

• Hands-on experience with orthotopic or metastatic cancer models.
• Expertise in evaluating cancer therapies in mouse models, especially cell therapies (e.g. CAR-T, CAR-NK, TCR-T) or antibody therapies.
• Knowledge of the interplay between the immune system and the tumor microenvironment.
• Experience or knowledge of in vitro cancer models (e.g. engineered cell lines, co-culture systems, or cancer organoids).
• Experience assessing PK/PD biomarkers using flow cytometry or ELISA assays