Job Description

Description

We are looking for a Senior Scientist to lead antimicrobial screening of previously uncultured microbes for novel bioactive metabolites.

Role

In this lab-based role, you will join our Compound Discovery team to coordinate our antimicrobial screening assays and lead improvements to the characterisation of compound bioactivity. This will support our vision to deliver solutions to global issues, including the discovery of new antibiotics against resistant bacteria and fungicides to support global food security.

Team

The Compound Discovery team consists of microbiologists, chemists and natural product experts who identify, isolate and characterise bioactive compounds from novel microbes. The team works closely with software engineers, data scientists, and bioinformaticians to conduct data-driven experimentation to continuously accelerate and optimise the discovery process.

Teamwork

All projects are led by individuals but supported by the entire group and discussed on a weekly basis. This model relies on people to take responsibility for their own projects, be open to discussing new ideas, and give fair and unbiased feedback. We are therefore looking for people who enjoy working in a collaborative and adaptive environment, with strong communication skills and a drive to be proactive.

Key Responsibilities

Conducting R&D and troubleshooting of our screening workflows for testing microbial extracts and pure compounds Designing, miniaturising and optimising primary and secondary bioassays Performing experiments, including sample preparation and data acquisition Analysing data in R/python Making data-driven decisions to prioritise samples entering bioassays and those that are processed downstream Identifying opportunities to automate the pipeline and supporting their implementation Coordinating containment and compliance for handling of hazard group II pathogens Leading quality assurance monitoring and reporting

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

You should have:

A PhD in biochemistry / microbiology/ cell biology or similar field 4+ years postdoctoral experience or equivalent industrial experience (start-up / biotech company preferred) Experience conducting bioassay development/optimisation Data-driven mindset facilitated by comfortably working with (retrieving, processing) large datasets to inform experimental decisions Experience with carrying out medium- to high-throughput screening assays Experience in working with lab automation (design, implementation, and optimisation of automated workflows) Highly organised and detail-oriented, with a focus on delivering high-quality results Strong self-motivation and drive to expand our technical platform Good priority management and ability to adapt Collaborative drive and good team ethic

It would be great if you had:

Experience with natural products and/or bacterial extracts Experience using SQL to access and process data in a relational database Knowledge of biostatistics Experience working with diverse microbes

Benefits

The chance to be part of an impact-driven, fun, multicultural, kind, and ambitious crowd Daily access to academic leaders, business leaders, and unicorn founders 25 days holiday + bank holidays Enhanced parental leave (12 weeks maternity / 6 weeks paternity) Enhanced Sick Pay Paid sabbatical after 5 years employment Flexible start and finish times within the company's core hours to fit your preferences Weekly team activities including board games, sports activities, and socials on Fridays Complimentary snacks, fruits, tea, coffee, soft drinks,... Access to 1000s of training courses through Udemy, with an allowance for both personal development and work-related training Bike2Work scheme Employee Assistance Programme offering structured counselling, life and career coaching, legal and financial advice platform

About Bactobio

We are a London-based biotechnology startup using breakthrough technologies in synthetic biology, next-generation sequencing and machine learning to cultivate the 99% of previously unculturable microbes. These microbes constitute the biggest bioresource in life, and our exclusive access allows us to discover novel chemicals that can be applied across a variety of markets.

We are impact-driven. Our first goal is to solve the growing antimicrobial resistance crisis through novel antibiotics and stabilise global food security through novel natural biodegradable fungicides.