Senior / Research Associate, Biology

The Opportunity:

Relay Therapeutics is seeking a self-motivated researcher who is excited to join our creative, collaborative, and talented team to drive the discovery of novel small molecule therapeutics in oncology and rare genetic diseases. In this role, you will design and execute molecular and cell biology experiments to evaluate candidate molecules and discover novel biomarkers of target engagement and disease modulation. You will interact and collaborate cross-functionally with scientists in other departments, including biochemists, chemists, and computational biologists while growing your understanding of drug discovery and helping bring medicines to patients. You will impact Relay’s research and development of programs at all stages: from hit-to-lead optimization all the way through IND-enabling studies and preclinical work supporting active clinical programs.

Your Role:

• You will work in close collaboration with our dynamic and passionate multi-disciplinary drug discovery team to drive projects from research to development.
• You will design and perform cell and molecular biology experiments to support the evaluation of small molecule therapeutics in oncology and rare genetic disease and to demonstrate the mechanism-of-action that leads to disease modulation.
• You will develop, optimize, and conduct cell-based assays (target engagement, reporter-based, and functional assays) to enable medicinal chemistry efforts and structure activity relationship assessment. Experience with high throughput multiwell plate-based assays is highly desired.
• You will develop and perform target engagement assays using tissue samples from in vivo disease models.
• We will rely on you to bring in new ideas and technologies to drive the project forward.
• You will collaborate with CROs for any outsourcing needs and integrate data analysis.
• You will maintain good written records of laboratory procedures, results, and conclusions.
• You will interpret, summarize, and report your research findings to the team.
• You will have the opportunity to present your work regularly at department and company meetings.

Your Background:

• You have a BS/MS with 3+ years of industry or academic experience working in a cancer biology and/or rare genetic disease team.
• You have excellent cell culture skills and experience with developing genetically engineered cell lines using approaches such as lentiviral transduction, CRISPR knockout/in, and RNAi. Experience with primary human cell cultures is desired but not required.
• You also have a versatile skill set in biology techniques from molecular biology (RT-qPCR, western blot, in cell western) to cell-based target engagement assays (ELISA, HTRF, AlphaLISA, NanoBRET). Experience with in vitro functional cell assays including proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis and with live cell imaging systems (eg, Sartorius Incucyte) is a plus.
• You are not afraid to roll-up your sleeves to move your project forward and are comfortable in a rapidly evolving research environment. Your can-do attitude is contagious.
• You can communicate clearly and enthusiastically the results and impact of your work to a variety of audiences.
• You are passionate about drug discovery and thrive in a highly collaborative environment.

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