Contract - Research Associate II, Plant Pathology

Company Summary:

Arana Biosciences is one of the latest companies founded through Flagship Pioneering's venture creation engine, where companies such as Moderna Inc. and Indigo Ag were conceived and created. Since Flagship's founding in 2000, the firm has originated and fostered the development of nearly 100 scientific ventures resulting in $19+ billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued patents, and more than 50 clinical trials for novel therapeutic agents. Arana Biosciences is integrating the latest developments in molecular biology and plant biology to create a new platform technology that enables adaptive, targeted and sustainable solutions in agriculture.

We are seeking a highly motivated, proactive, and detail-oriented Research Associate to join our rapidly growing team. This role will support our team by assisting with plant bioassays, including pest and pathogen challenges. The successful candidate will interface closely with the Controlled Environment Agriculture team and the Crop Traits team. The successful candidate is highly organized, comfortable working in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment, and an integral part of a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary team. Excellent communication, record-keeping, and teamwork will be critical.

Responsibilities:

• Implement and optimize bioassays to generate high-quality data and results to support technology development and product development efforts, working closely with senior scientists

• Validate and execute efficacy studies for lab and greenhouse scale experiments

• Collaboratively establish SOPs and continuously improve assay quality

• Lead and conduct proper rearing and maintenance of insect colonies

• Interface with project leads across functions to communicate status and clarify priorities

• Present scientific findings in project team meetings

• Write protocols, reports, and document results in laboratory notebooks

• Develop scientific and technical expertise through familiarity with scientific literature, attending conferences, and developing relationships with thought leaders

• Contribute to a dynamic, exciting culture that embraces teamwork and innovation in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment

• Other duties as assigned

Basic qualifications:

• BS (with a minimum of 2 years applied experience) or MS (with minimum of 1 year applied experience) in entomology, plant pathology, or plant biology in an industrial or product-oriented setting

• Technical expertise in large-scale plant bioassay development and execution with insect, bacterial, fungus and/or viral disease assays in economically important crops

• Strong aseptic technique, including microbial culture maintenance and on-plant disease assays

• Ability to analyze and interpret data to independently make decisions about troubleshooting workflows

Additional qualifications:

• Advanced skills in Excel, Prism, or R with fundamentals in statistics and data presentation

• Excellent communication and detail-oriented documentation skills

• Experience with proper handling of RNA

• Experience with high-throughput non-destructive plant phenotyping platforms is nice to have, but not required

• Experience with field work and field-scale phenotyping is nice to have, but not required

• Experience identifying and establishing QC checkpoints

• Experience with protocol development that adhere to USDA/EPA guidelines

Location: Cambridge, MA with occasional travel

More About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life sciences companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $50B in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $2.2B in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $18B of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises transformative companies, including Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Indigo Ag, Invaio Sciences, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Generate Biomedicines, Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Senda Biosciences and Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX).

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, "FSP") do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering's internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.