Microbial Strain Engineer

Octarine’s mission is to solve our greatest health challenges by enabling innovative cannabinoid and psychedelic therapeutics. Many neurological and psychological conditions are poorly served by current drugs, leaving physicians, patients, and their families desperately seeking alternative therapies, sometimes illegally. Cannabinoids and psychedelics are poised to offer breakthrough therapies for these debilitating conditions, but to realize the full potential of these molecules, issues with their production and undesirable properties must first be solved. Octarine is perfecting a biological approach to producing improved & novel cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules with tailored modes-of-action. Our proprietary technology combines synthetic biology, yeast fermentation and enzymatic derivatization to develop IP protected drug candidates that are validated in pre-clinical screening.

Job Description

We’re looking for an experienced biological engineer with a background in microbial strain engineering to lead our efforts to produce natural and novel molecules with therapeutic function. As an important member of our molecular biology team, you will work to engineer biological systems to produce a range of molecules which will subsequently feed into our drug development platforms.

Typical Responsibilities Will Include

• Design genetic strategies to improve the biosynthetic production of target molecules
• Optimize HTP workflows for DNA assembly, strain engineering, and phenotypic analysis
• Generate and test enzyme variants for improved function using in vitro and in vivo enzyme assays
• Elucidate biosynthetic pathways to new molecules

Our ideal candidate will be able to handle as many of the following scientific areas as possible.

• Metabolic engineering (particularly in yeast): Proven track record of engineering microbial cell factories to produce target molecules. As well as identify production bottlenecks and design and implement genetic strategies to overcome them.
• HTP assay development: Experience developing HTP assays to identify improved enzyme variants and high producing strains
• DNA assembly: Experience with modern DNA assembly workflows such as MoClo, USER cloning etc.
• Computational analysis: Familiarity with statistical analysis of datasets, Bioinformatics tools and basic programming languages (e.g. Excel, Python, R)

Other useful (non-scientific) attributes which will be viewed favourably include.

• Well organized: As a start-up things often move very fast! You will need to have exceptional organizational skills to keep up
• Team player: Our research team functions as a well-oiled machine, working together to efficiently design and test hypotheses. You’ll need to thrive in a team environment and have fantastic communication skills to become a successful cog in our machine.
• The right mind-set: A start-up can at times be a chaotic and highly dynamic environment, priorities can quickly change so you must be flexible enough to change direction.
• Responsibility: We’re a small company with a flat hierarchy and we expect you to take responsibility for your role in it. You should be comfortable making important decisions on the direction of our research, and confident enough to see them through to completion.
• Inter-disciplinary: We look for scientists who are comfortable working in multiple disciplines and are capable of picking up new skills

Professional requirements

• PhD in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, biochemistry or a related field
• Experience supervising students/technicians
• Demonstrated ability to successfully complete metabolic engineering projects e.g. through scientific publications and/or patents

What we can offer

Octarine is a young biotech company expanding rapidly to become a world-leader in the field. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an ambitious and fast-paced company and play an active role in our growth and future success. We’re a friendly and social bunch and provide a fun but scientifically stimulating work environment. We’re also based in the centre of one of Europe’s most vibrant cities, and a country known for its high quality of life and exceptional work/life balance.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis with a preferred immediate start date.

Please apply with a CV including a brief motivation letter with your application.