Senior Research Scientist

Sr. Research Scientist - Wilmington, DE

At ICON Strategic Solutions, you will work in a sponsor-dedicated model, supported by ICON’s global expertise.

As the world’s largest FSP organisation, with over 90 sponsor partnerships, we offer stability, career development and a collaborative environment where your work contributes to the development of treatments that benefit patients worldwide.

• Independently design and optimize recombinant protein constructs for expression and downstream applications.
• Perform transfection of plasmids into mammalian cells, cell line maintenance, generation of baculovirus, and protein expression in insect (Sf9) and mammalian systems.
• Express recombinant proteins using bacterial expression systems and optimize conditions to maximize yield, solubility, and quality.
• Develop, optimize, and execute protein purification workflows using chromatography techniques including affinity, ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC).
• Develop and execute purification strategies for antibodies, antibody fragments, and antibody-containing complexes.
• Perform antibody purification and QC, including assessment of purity, aggregation, integrity, concentration, and overall sample quality using appropriate analytical methods.
• Characterize purified proteins and antibodies using a broad range of biochemical and biophysical techniques, including analytical SEC/HPLC, SDS-PAGE, intact-mass analysis where applicable, DSF/thermal shift assays, BLI, SPR, and other analytical assays.
• Establish and apply protein and antibody quality-control criteria to ensure samples are suitable for structural studies, binding assays, biochemical assays, immunization campaigns, and other downstream applications.
• Evaluate protein and antibody stability, homogeneity, aggregation state, concentration, and batch-to-batch consistency; identify potential quality issues and implement appropriate corrective strategies.
• Troubleshoot recombinant protein and antibody expression, purification, and stability challenges to improve yield, purity, monodispersity, and functional quality.
• Generate high-quality protein samples and protein complexes forX-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, biophysical studies, biochemical assays, and other structural biology applications.
• Support antibody discovery programs by providing purified and well-characterized antibody molecules and complexes for downstream functional and structural characterization.
• Independently plan and execute small- and large-scale expression, purification, and characterization experiments while effectively managing multiple projects and priorities.
• Contribute to the daily operations of a highly productive protein production laboratory, including maintaining equipment, improving workflows, and supporting laboratory development and technology implementation.
• Analyze and interpret experimental data, communicate results clearly, and make data-driven recommendations that can influence program strategy and decision-making.
• Collaborate effectively with protein engineers, structural biologists, assay scientists, computational scientists, and project teams in a highly matrixed environment.
• Contribute to the development and implementation ofAI-enabled and technology-driven approaches to accelerate protein production, characterization, structural biology, and drug discovery workflows.
• Maintain accurate experimental records and communicate results through presentations, written reports, and cross-functional project meetings.
• Work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment while maintaining high scientific and operational standards.

• PhD in Biochemistry, Biophysics, Protein Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Structural Biology, or a related field with at least…