Scientist, Drug Discovery And Biology

Acrivon is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision oncology medicines that it matches to patients whose tumors are predicted to be sensitive to each specific medicine by utilizing Acrivon's proprietary proteomics-based patient responder identification platform, Acrivon Predictive Precision Proteomics, or AP3. The AP3 platform is engineered to measure compound-specific effects on the entire tumor cell protein signaling network and drug-induced resistance mechanisms in an unbiased manner. These distinctive capabilities enable AP3's direct application for drug design optimization for monotherapy activity, the identification of rational drug combinations, and the creation of drug-specific proprietary OncoSignature companion diagnostics that are used to identify the patients most likely to benefit from Acrivon's drug candidates.

Acrivon is currently advancing its lead candidate, ACR-368 (also known as prexasertib), a selective small molecule inhibitor targeting CHK1 and CHK2 in a potentially registrational Phase 2 trial across multiple tumor types. The company has received Fast Track designation from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the investigation of ACR-368 as monotherapy based on OncoSignature-predicted sensitivity in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian or endometrial cancer. Acrivon's ACR-368 OncoSignature test, which has not yet obtained regulatory approval, has been extensively evaluated in preclinical studies, including in two separate, blinded, prospectively-designed studies on pretreatment tumor biopsies collected from past third-party Phase 2 trials in patients with ovarian cancer treated with ACR-368. The FDA has granted Breakthrough Device designation for the ACR-368 OncoSignature assay for the identification of ovarian cancer patients who may benefit from ACR-368 treatment. In addition to ACR-368, Acrivon is also leveraging its proprietary AP3 precision medicine platform for developing its co-crystallography-driven, internally-discovered preclinical stage pipeline programs. These include ACR-2316, a potent, selective WEE1/PKMYT1 inhibitor designed for superior single-agent activity as demonstrated in preclinical studies against benchmark inhibitors, and a cell cycle program with an undisclosed target.

Our global team operates out of two leading life science clusters, Watertown, MA and Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden.

Position Overview:

We are looking for a Scientist who can contribute to all three pillars of the biology group: discovery, target biology and translational pharmacology. In this unique role, the Scientist will provide critical thoughts on new targets through deep literature/data mining, innovative ideas on assay design/selection to address complex biology, strong technical experience to execute assays at the bench, and the capability to interrogate large public/internal datasets (pan cancer atlases and registries, cancer dependencies, various omics) to generate hypotheses and/or explain mechanism of drug and/or target action. This position demands a robust background in cancer biology, and a keen ability to synthesize, hypothesize, and curate relevant knowledge from literature and data. This position reports to the Director of Biomarker Discovery and will work closely with multiple functions in Research. The role will be based in Watertown, MA.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and optimize cell based assays to support drug discovery

• Design, conduct, and interpret biological experiments to support preclinical and development programs. This would include internal assays (immunoassays, proteomics, cell based assays) and niche assays available through CROs.

• Analyze independently, or cross functionally, to integrate different data modalities and large datasets (such as phosphoproteomics and/or genomics) from experiments and the public domain, using statistical software and data visualization tools to interpret and present results.

• Stay up-to-date with the latest scientific literature in the field and use this knowledge to inform on potential new targets and assays, experimental design and interpretation.

• Work closely with other scientists and researchers across functions, contributing to team projects and sharing findings through reports and presentations.

• Contribute to authorship of protocols, study procedures, and scientific manuscripts.

• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior scientists and research assistants.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• BS/MS with 8+ years, or Ph.D. with 5+ years of industry experience, major in Biology, Cancer Biology, Immunology, or a related field.

• Extensive experience conducting biological experiments with great breadth addressing scientific questions at various levels.

• Strong knowledge and grasp of scientific literature and the capability to apply this knowledge to research.

• Demonstrated ability to work independently and proactively on multiple projects in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

• Experience with large-scale data analysis, interpretation and communication of complex data sets, independently or collaboratively.

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and adapt to a fast-paced style.

• Experience working with reference biological databases and datasets (e.g., TCGA, cBioPortal, DepMap) is highly preferred.

Acrivon Therapeutics is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Acrivon Therapeutics complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.