Staff Scientist - Vaccine Research

Join the forefront of groundbreaking research at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, where we're changing lives and making a real difference in the fight against cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Our dedicated and compassionate faculty and staff are driven by a common mission: Contribute to innovative approaches in predicting, preventing, and curing diseases, shaping the future of medicine through cutting-edge research.

A Staff Scientist position is available in the Vaccine Research Laboratory of Dr. Don Diamond in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation of the City of Hope.  The position is available as part of a multi-disciplinary research team tasked to develop a neoantigen-based cancer vaccine for clinical use. We received favorable comments from the FDA on our Pre-IND submission utilizing a highly efficient and fully synthetic poxvirus-vectored vaccine platform that has already been derisked by its use in Phase 2 clinical trials as a Covid-19 vaccine (see NCT04977024, NCT05672355, and NCT04639466).

Please refer to these publications for further background: doi:10.3390/vaccines11091492, PMC7705736, PMC8906816, PMID33257686, PMID31739399 describing the platform and earlier publications using a p53-expressing MVA as a clinical therapeutic in cancer patients (10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-23-0394, PMC8802616, PMC5856606, and PMC5706612).

As a successful candidate, you will:

·         Join a highly productive research team who are developing and characterizing recombinant vaccine vectors incorporating neoantigens identified by proprietary bioinformatic pipelines and test these vaccine candidates for in vivo immunogenicity and protective efficacy in different animal tumor models.

·         Understanding and prior experience with construction and use of viral vaccine carriers of antigens in animal models would be valuable for this employment opportunity.

·         Have experience in tumor immunology including working with transplantable tumor cell lines in congenic mouse models.

·         Have experience and knowledge of human immunology is preferred.

Your qualifications should include:

·         PhD degree in an appropriate discipline such as cellular or tumor immunology or related fields and preferably a minimum of 3 years of experience in relevant laboratory work.

·         Interest and knowledge in vaccine research and neoantigen-based vaccine methods.

·         Experience with animal models: Hands-on experience with preclinical animal models, particularly orthotopic tumor models, including animal handling, tumor cell injections, and routine tumor measurements. Knowledge and experience with ultrasound imaging for tumor monitoring is preferred.  

·         Experience in multi-color flow cytometry, ELISPOT, measurement of tumor growth by optical imaging, tumor physiology and growth markers, cell culture and related laboratory techniques.

·         Ability to independently document scientific progress and write research articles.

City of Hope employees pay is based on the following criteria: work experience, qualifications, and work location.

City of Hope is an equal opportunity employer.

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