Metabolic/Protein engineer

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Employer:	Octarine
Date Posted:	Dec 11, 2020
Employment:	Full Time
Focus / Industry:
Location:	Copenhagen, Denmark

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Octarine’s mission is to solve our greatest health challenges by enabling innovative cannabinoid and psychedelic therapeutics. Many neurological and psychological conditions are poorly served by current drugs, leaving physicians, patients, and their families desperately seeking alternative therapies, sometimes illegally. Cannabinoids and psychedelics are poised to offer breakthrough therapies for these debilitating conditions, but to realize the full potential of these molecules, issues with their production and undesirable properties must first be solved. Octarine is perfecting a biological approach to producing improved & novel cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules with tailored modes-of-action. Our proprietary technology combines synthetic biology, yeast fermentation and enzymatic derivatization to develop IP protected drug candidates that are validated in pre-clinical screening.

Job description

We’re looking for an experienced biological engineer with a background in metabolic and/or protein engineering to lead our efforts to produce natural and novel molecules with therapeutic function. In this role you will use a range of bioinformatics and “omics” tools to identify and test promising enzyme candidates leading to the production of target high-value molecules, use a range of protein modelling and mutagenesis techniques to generate improved enzyme variants with e.g. increased activity, substrate range, stability etc, and finally engineer yeast cell-factories to produce target molecules by fermentation.

Our ideal candidate will be able to handle as many of the following scientific areas as possible:

- Gene hunting: A proven track record elucidating biosynthetic pathways to high-value molecules.

- Protein engineering: An ability to analyse gene/protein sequences and identify hot spots for mutagenesis and generate and screen for variants with improved function.

- Metabolic engineering (particularly in yeast): Proven track record of engineering microbial cell factories to produce target molecules de novo. As well as identify production bottlenecks and design and implement genetic strategies to overcome them.

Other useful (non-scientific) attributes which will be viewed favourably include

- Well organized: As a small start-up things often move very fast! You will need to have exceptional organizational skills to keep up

- Team player: Our research team functions as a well-oiled machine, working together to efficiently design and test hypotheses. You’ll need to thrive in a team environment and have fantastic communication skills to become a successful cog in our machine.

- The right mind-set: A start-up can at times be a chaotic and highly dynamic environment, priorities can quickly change so you must be flexible enough to change direction.

- Responsibility: We’re a small company with a flat hierarchy and we expect you to take responsibility for your role in it. You should be comfortable making important decisions on the direction of our research, and confident enough to see them through to completion.

Professional requirements

- PhD in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, protein engineering or a related field

- Experience supervising students/technicians

- Demonstrated ability to successfully complete metabolic and/or protein engineering projects e.g. through scientific publications and patents

What we can offer

Octarine is a young biotech company expanding rapidly to become a world-leader in the field. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an ambitious and fast-paced company and play an active role in our growth and future success. We’re a friendly and social bunch and provide a fun but scientifically stimulating work environment. We’re also based in the centre of one of Europe’s most vibrant cities, and in a country known for its high quality of life and exceptional work/life balance.

For more information or questions please contact us at nickmilne@octarinebio.com