Post-Doctoral Research Fellow - Therapeutic Protein Design

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is an independent, nonprofit organization providing adult cancer treatment and groundbreaking research focused on cancer and infectious diseases. Based in Seattle, Fred Hutch is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Washington.

With a track record of global leadership in bone marrow transplantation, HIV/AIDS prevention, immunotherapy and COVID-19 vaccines, Fred Hutch has earned a reputation as one of the world's leading cancer, infectious disease and biomedical research centers. Fred Hutch operates eight clinical care sites that provide medical oncology, infusion, radiation, proton therapy and related services, and network affiliations with hospitals in five states. Together, our fully integrated research and clinical care teams seek to discover new cures to the world's deadliest diseases and make life beyond cancer a reality.

At Fred Hutch we value collaboration, compassion, determination, excellence, innovation, integrity and respect. These values are grounded in and expressed through the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our mission is directly tied to the humanity, dignity and inherent value of each employee, patient, community member and supporter. Our commitment to learning across our differences and similarities make us stronger. We seek employees who bring different and innovative ways of seeing the world and solving problems. Fred Hutch is in pursuit of becoming an anti-racist organization. We are committed to ensuring that all candidates hired share our commitment to diversity, anti-racism and inclusion.

The Ring Lab of Synthetic and Systems Immunopharmacology is located within the Translational Science and Therapeutics Division and is a member of the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC). Their primary focus is on developing unique and first-in-class therapeutic drugs for cancer immunotherapy using cutting-edge protein engineering with directed evolution. The lab has developed therapeutics that are currently in clinical trials, such as ST-067 (a "decoy-resistant" IL-18), MDNA-11 (CD122-biased IL-2), and ALX-148/evorpacept (an ultra-high affinity SRP decoy). Moreover, the Ring Lab is actively working on developing platforms for identifying new targets in cancer immunotherapy. These technologies include the REAP platform for discovering autoantibodies in patient samples, and high-throughput techniques in synthetic antibody engineering and proteogenomics to pinpoint new tumor antigens.

The Ring Lab is recruiting a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with expertise in immunology, systems/computational biology, and/or protein engineering. This position will involve research projects that investigate the relationship between patient autoantibodies and health and disease outcomes. At the core of these programs is the REAP autoantibody profiling technology, which provides unprecedented levels of detail about the "autoantibody reactome" present in patient blood and tissue samples. Researchers will perform the very first "autoantibody-wide association studies" to pinpoint how specific autoantibody reactivities impact disease biology, analogous to but independent from the effect of genetic variation. This entirely new research program is poised to identify novel therapeutic targets for a range of indications including cancer, autoimmune disease, inflammatory conditions such as IBD, infectious disease, and neurodegeneration.

The ideal candidate will be a highly-curious, motivated, independent, and collaborative research scientist keen to explore new areas of biology and therapeutic development. They will work closely with Dr. Ring, lab manager Alison Notestine, external collaborators, and other members of the Ring laboratory to execute highly-multidisciplinary studies. Furthermore, they will have the opportunity and responsibility to contribute to the preparation of research reports and scientific manuscripts, as well as present at scientific conferences and symposiums. The Ring lab welcomes candidates with a diverse range of career aspirations and has a track-record of supporting trainees to pursue careers in academia, biotech/pharma, life-science investing, and consulting.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

MD or PhD in a related field
• Broad experience in molecular and cell biology methods and the ability to master new techniques and approaches
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• A team player with strong aptitude for collaboration

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • Immunology
  • Systems biology/bioinformatics
  • Single cell transcriptomics/proteogenomics
  • Protein engineering/directed evolution with yeast, phage, or mRNA/ribosome display technology
• Experience with mouse models is desirable

A statement describing your commitment and contributions toward greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in your career or that will be made through your work at Fred Hutch is requested of all finalists.

The annual base salary range for this position is from $77,976 to $150,000 and pay offered will be based on experience and qualifications.

This position may be eligible for relocation assistance.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center offers employees a comprehensive benefits package designed to enhance health, well-being, and financial security. Benefits include medical/vision, dental, flexible spending accounts, life, disability, retirement, family life support, employee assistance program, onsite health clinic, income-based child care subsidy, tuition reimbursement, paid vacation (22 days per year), paid sick leave (up to 30 calendar days per occurrence of a qualifying reason), paid holidays (13 days per year), and paid parental leave (up to 4 weeks).