CHDI FOUNDATIONCHDI

Accelerating Therapeutic Development for Huntington's Disease

Director, Protein Biochemistry/Drug Discovery

Job Posting

Title: Scientific Director: Protein Biochemistry/Drug Discovery

Reports directly to the Vice President Preclinical Drug Discovery

Location: Los Angeles, CA or Princeton, NJ / currently hybrid

 

Vaccination against COVID-19 is a prerequisite for employment at CHDI Management.

 

About CHDI

CHDI Foundation, Inc. is a privately funded, nonprofit, biomedical research organization that is exclusively dedicated to rapidly accelerating therapies that slow the progression of Huntington’s disease (HD). Our scientists work closely with a network of more than ~700 researchers in academic and industrial laboratories around the world in the pursuit of these novel therapies, providing strategic scientific direction to ensure that our common goals remain in focus. This helps bridge the translational gap that often exists between academic and industrial research pursuits and that adds costly delays to therapy development. In our role as a collaborative enabler, CHDI seeks to bring the right partners together to identify, address, and de-risk critical scientific issues to accelerate drug candidates to clinical evaluation as rapidly as possible. Our activities extend from exploratory biology to the identification and validation of therapeutic targets and the development of proof-of-concept compounds, as well as to provide support for clinical studies and trials.

Our staff works for CHDI Management, Inc. CHDI Management provides administrative, management, and contracting services to CHDI Foundation, as well as to other non-profit organizations dedicated to HD research.

 

Job Role

CHDI Management seeks an experienced, innovative, and passionate drug discovery scientist to join the preclinical team as Science Director, to support the Foundation’s mission to accelerate meaningful therapies and clinical biomarkers for Huntington’s disease. In this role you will be responsible for developing and coordinating the strategy and tactics for protein biochemistry/biophysics related core platforms in support of target validation and target modulator mechanistic studies. You will participate in interdisciplinary teams with goals, strategies and objectives to advance a portfolio of drug discovery campaigns to elaborate proof of concept/mechanism compounds. You will participate in identifying, evaluating, advising, and partnering on external programs, technologies, and modalities that are relevant to our mission.  The position involves being a team member along with a group of highly experienced group of scientists within CHDI, as well as coordination/oversight of a larger team of external experts and collaborators (CROs and academics) within a unique “virtual” biopharmaceutical research model. A strong commitment to help patients coupled with scientific excellence, and commitment to collaborating, engaging and empowering diverse scientists is essential.  CHDI Foundation conducts their research from three USA-based offices (New York City, Los Angeles, & Princeton). The position requires regular travel between the CHDI offices and to the various CROs and academics located in the USA, EU, and Britain.

 Job Description

  • Provide expertise on how proteins (specifically “molecular machines”) work at biochemical, mechanistic, and cell-based levels.
  • Provide expertise in mechanistic enzymology. Lead and oversee the design, development and deployment of biochemical and biophysical assays that inform on protein structure-function and options to modulate their activities and functions.
  • Provide expertise in protein production and qualification. Contribute to structure-function studies to inform on mechanistic activities, phenocopy pharmacology and help guide structure-activity relationships.
  • Oversee designing and implementing biochemical and biophysical assays to inform on protein function, protein dynamics, and ligand interactions (e.g., SPR, SEC-MALS, MST, NanoDSF, NMR-spectroscopy, stop-flow EPR, Molecular Dynamics, etc.)
  • Provide expertise in detailed mechanistic enzyme kinetics to aid in the design and prosecution of assays to effectively profile both reversible and irreversible modulators and to gain insight into the mechanism of action and structure activity relationships for drug efficacy.
  • Provide biochemistry perspective as part of a multi-disciplinary drug discovery team that includes computational chemistry, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, and genetics and cell biology expertise.

Job requirements

  • Ph.D Degree in Enzymology, Biochemistry, Chemical biology, or related discipline
  • A minimum of 10 years of experience in the biotech / pharmaceutical industry  or relevant non-profit/academic experience
  • Demonstrated track record in illuminating biology by generating a detailed understanding of protein mechanism and function
  • Demonstrated experience successfully applying appropriate biochemical and biophysical assays to support hit characterization, mechanism of action elucidation and structure activity relationship development; experience with hit finding approaches and lead optimization
  • Demonstrated experience functioning within a strong multi-disciplinary team, utilizing cross-functional information, such as structural and cell biology data, to optimize the biochemical workflow
  • Demonstrated experience in protein chemistry, biochemistry/biophysical skills with a proven track record of successful application to drug discovery, experience in nucleic acid protein biochemistry a plus to advance CHDI’s current portfolio efforts on DNA Mismatch Repair Proteins, and Proteins engaging DNA at topological, chromatin, transcriptional levels
  • Experience in chemical biology and the integration of structural biology and biophysics across mechanistic biology and drug development
  • Interest in the interface of biochemical structure-function with virtual screening and AI/ML approaches
  • A proven track record of participating in interdisciplinary drug discovery project teams from protein function and hit identification to lead optimization
  • Demonstrated experience working with contract research organizations and academic collaborators.
  • Experience in Program Leadership, Team goals and strategies planning and implementation. Management/Oversight skills to manage, mentor, and engage teams of experienced CRO and academic PhD level scientists
  • Strategic thinker capable of contributing to the prioritizing and implementing the Foundation’s significant resources for innovation and drug discovery prosecution to successfully influence/impact our mission
  • Strong interpersonal and written and oral communication skills, and a demonstrated enthusiasm for participating in collaborative enablement characterized by mission focus, rigorous science and innovative thinking

 

Salary range: $120,000-220,000.  Exact compensation will vary based on experience.

 

Resumes to