Formulation Associate Scientist

Position Title: Associate Scientist

Location: Cambridge, MA

Assignment Duration: 12 Months +

Description:

Technical Research & Development is seeking a highly motivated individual to join the discovery pharmaceutics function, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Profiling (CPP), and contribute to the development of discovery compounds. This successful candidate will join an energizing and collaborative research environment working as part of cross functional drug discovery teams in providing a developability assessment of new chemical entities.

The ideal candidate must be capable of working independently to execute pre-formulation activities for small molecule and oligonucleotide drug candidates. As such, strong competency in physical pharmacy and preclinical formulation development is preffered to efficiently function in this role and in understanding the physicochemical properties of new chemical entities and implementing formulation strategies to maximize the exposure in preclinical in vivo studies.

The candidate must demonstrate and foster strong team spirit and promote knowledge exchange within the group. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to proactively manage the interactions of simultaneous project related activities in support of multiple CPP Project Leads. In order to accomplish this, the role requires excellent time manangement and multitasking capacity, and timely communication of overall project information to the appropriate Project Lead via oral and written communication.

Your key responsibilities:

Your responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Design and develop stage appropriate, fit-for-purpose preclinical formulations. This includes development of both oral and parenteral formulations on a small scale
• Screening of solubility and dissolution rate enhancing formulations such as nanosuspensions and amorphous solid dispersions
• Assessment of the performance of prototype formulations using in vitro tests such as dissolution, precipitation behavior, and stability
• Basic drug substance characterization by techniques such as XRPD, DSC and TGA, DVS, PLM, DLS and UPLC. Assessment of the chemical and physical properties of small molecules, such as solubility, dissolution, particle size and chemical stability
• Preparation of formulations for use in preclinical in vivo studies and authoring protocols describing preparation of formulations for use at internal and external formulation labs
• Routine lab support such as buffer and mobile phase preparation, pH meter calibration, and basic troubleshooting of lab equipment. Shipping and receiving of samples between other and external sites

What you’ll bring to the role:

• Ideally Master's degree with at least 1-3 years of experience. Or a Bachelor's degree with up to 3 years of any laboratory experience will be considered as well.
• Hands on experience with a range of analytical methods used to assess compound properties
• The ability to manage multiple parallel activities and deliver results on agreed timelines
• Ability to work independently but with good communication skills

Desirable requirements

• Prior experience communicating data and proposing further experimental work
• Practical experience in developing and preparing preclinical formulations
• Basic knowledge of physicochemical properties and their relationship to formulation development