Job Description

ABOUT THIS ROLE

The successful candidate, with proficiency in model generation and data analysis to support decision making for hit identification, lead identification and optimization, will have excellent communication skills, strong leadership skills, and ability to work independently and in close collaboration with medicinal chemists and biologists and DMPK scientists. He/She will be reporting to the Head of Computational Chemistry group which is a part of the Medicinal Chemistry department.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Work within a project team as a computational chemistry lead to help the team in iterative improvement of compound potency and selectivity with desirable physicochemical properties for oral administration for CNS/peripheral targets.
• Perform drug ability assessment of targets including identification of novel pockets using molecular dynamics simulations.
• Perform virtual screening of internal and commercial compound libraries (including ultra large virtual libraries) against targets.
• Utilize deep generative and machine learning methods to design and optimize novel molecules against targets.
• Perform analysis of high throughput screening results, data mining of internal and external databases to identify new Hits.
• Perform SAR data analysis to help medicinal chemists in lead optimization.
• Perform binding energy calculations including Free Energy simulations of receptor-ligand complexes.
• Apply ligand-based design methods on phenotypic screening projects.

WHO YOU ARE

You are motivated to work in the challenging area of CNS targeted drug discovery and experience in working in multidisciplinary environment. You have a striong track record of accomplishments in drug discovery and/or molecular modelling fields: publications, patents, conference presentations.

WHY BIOGEN?

Our mission to find therapies for neurological and rare diseases is a unique focus within our industry and this shared purpose is what connects us as a team. We work together to overcome obstacles and to follow the science. We are resilient as we strive to make an impact on our patients’ lives and on changing the course of medicine. Together, we pioneer. Together, we thrive.

Qualifications

REQUIRED SKILLS

• Scientist II - PhD with 2 - 5 years post-doctoral experience
• Sr Scientist - PhD with minimum of 5 years post-doctoral experience
• Proven expertise in all aspects of structure-based drug design, pharmacophore/ligand-based drug design, virtual screening, docking, library design, QSAR, and data mining/analysis methods is required
• Advanced knowledge of one or more of the following software packages: Schrödinger suite, CCG, and OpenEye.

PREFERRED SKILLS

• Knowledge of neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory drug targets.
• Expertise in modeling RNA – small molecule modeling.
• Proficiency in statistical data analysis, and computer programming is required.

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.