Scientist - Viral Gene Delivery

About the role

As a Scientist in the Delivery team, you will engineer and validate viral gene delivery approaches to enable the expression and function of novel molecular biosensors and actuators of neural activity in preclinical models. Your work will serve as the critical bridge between molecular engineering and in vivo functionality and enable the ultimate clinical translation of molecular BCI. You will collaborate closely with protein engineers, cell and synthetic biologists, machine learning engineers, physicists and neuroscientists.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and test AAV and other viral vectors for gene delivery to the CNS, spanning serotype selection, cargo and regulatory element design, dose, and route of administration.
• Design, run, and interpret in vivo studies in rodents and, where appropriate, large animal models, iterating rapidly from results to the next round of optimization.
• Evaluate and benchmark routes of administration for viral gene delivery to the brain, including pairing of viral vectors with focused ultrasound blood-brain barrier opening.
• Build or adapt the assays and readouts needed to quantify delivery, expression, cell-type specificity, and tolerability in brain tissue.
• Evaluate emerging delivery technologies and help shape the team's longer-term delivery strategy. Make data-driven calls on which routes and technologies to advance.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• A Ph.D. or equivalent experience leading research projects end-to-end in bioengineering, neuroscience, virology, cell biology, molecular biology or a related field.
• Prior hands-on experience designing and testing AAV or other viral vectors in vivo to target the central nervous system.
• Demonstrated expertise in developing or optimizing gene delivery modalities.
• Developed and executed assays to evaluate gene delivery and expression in brain tissue.
• Designed and executed in vivo studies and interpreted delivery and expression results.
• Experience using focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier or otherwise facilitate delivery to the brain.
• Worked on a delivery-related problem that is unusual or complex and loved it.
• Enjoyed working on multidisciplinary teams, collaborating and communicating with experts across disciplines.
• The desire to be part of a fast-paced team working on frontier scientific and technical problems.

Nice to have:

• Experience advancing a vector through preclinical translation or into the clinic.
• Familiarity with CMC, scale-up, or GMP manufacturing considerations for viral vectors.
• Expertise in AAV virology or capsid engineering.
• Have worked with large animal models.
• Familiarity with non-viral delivery technologies.
• Experience sourcing, evaluating, or in-licensing delivery technologies through external collaboration.