Research Fellow, Machine Learning for Discovery Modalities

Job Description

Our Biotherapeutics and Medicinal Sciences department is seeking a highly motivated PhD scientist to develop Machine Learning (ML) and/or bioinformatics methods to aid drug discovery across four therapeutic modalities - biologics, gene therapy/viral delivery, small molecules or antisense oligonucleotides. The successful candidate will work closely with molecular biologists, machine learning scientists, bioinformatics experts, chemical biology and proteomics experts, NGS teams, and structural biologists to design and analyze data from various in vitro and in vivo studies. The candidate will work on integrating ML and computational protein modeling/design with wet-lab experiments at various throughput levels, and subsequently, to guide the design of novel molecules. The Research Fellow role at Biogen is an 18-month position designed to provide a unique opportunity for scientists to gain exposure to drug discovery and train in an industry research setting.

What you will do:

• Join the Computational Science group as a research fellow and participate in cutting-edge research in ML and its application to different therapeutic modalities.
• Develop, train and test ML and/or bioinformatics methods that learn determinants of antibody fitness for developability, stability, and/or affinity, and use these to select candidates to carry forward
• Develop bioinformatics and statistical tools to help analyze high dimensional and sparse datasets
• Devise, train, refine, and deploy deep neural network models using public and proprietary sequence, structure, property or function data
• Collaborate closely with experimental scientists to create a model-test-learn loop
• Develop and apply modeling and design strategies for proteins, antibodies, or AAV capsids
• Keep abreast of state-of-the-art technologies in the field
• Present scientific findings to broad audiences including senior leadership to drive decision making in program teams

Qualifications

Requirements:

• Ph.D. in a field related to computational science, such as biomedical engineering, computer science, and computational biology.
• Experience with VAEs, GNNs, Tranformers, and other machine learning architectures and frameworks (e.g. pytorch, tensorflow)
• Experience with devising and implementing ML methods for protein or antibody modeling or design, or with deep learning methods that relate protein sequence, structure, property or function (e.g., structure prediction, annotation, novel or variant sequence generation, property prediction, directed evolution, etc.)
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S.

Additional Information

About us

The Gene Therapy Accelerator Unit (GTxAU) represents Biogen’s center of expertise to develop next-generation gene therapies based on Adeno-Associated vectors. Our mission is to support Biogen’s rapidly growing gene therapy pipeline to treat currently untreatable neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and ophthalmologic disorders. We work to achieve this mission by engineering and validating pre-clinical & clinical candidates and developing new technologies to improve efficacy, safety, and manufacturing processes.

Computational Science group is assembled with scientists with interdisciplinary backgrounds from Computational Chemists, Computational Biologists, Structural Biologists, and Machine Learning Scientists. The group provide a shared strategy for advancing computational science across the Biotherapeutics and Medicinal Science (BTMS) unit and leverage internal expertise within BTMS as well as external opportunities to address some of the CS/ML challenges across different modalities.

As pioneers in neuroscience, Biogen discovers, develops, and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological diseases as well as related therapeutic adjacencies. One of the world’s first global biotechnology companies, Biogen was founded in 1978 by Charles Weissmann, Heinz Schaller, Sir Kenneth Murray, and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp. Today, Biogen has a leading portfolio of medicines to treat multiple sclerosis, has introduced the first approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, and developed the first and only approved treatment to address a defining pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. Biogen is also commercializing biosimilars and focusing on advancing one of the industry’s most diversified pipelines in neuroscience that will transform the standard of care for patients in several areas of high unmet need.

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.

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