Description
The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. With more than 2,000 employees, the FNLCR is responsible for pursuing a mission of translational and applied biomedical research that is unique from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, or other federal contractors. The selected candidate will join a newly created FNLCR laboratory at the NCI-Frederick campus that is within the NCI Molecular Pharmacology Branch (MPB), which employs state-of-the-art approaches to discover novel targets, evaluate investigational therapeutics, and develop novel drug combinations to improve treatment of recalcitrant, rare, and neglected cancers.
Key Roles/Responsibilities
- Use computational methods to develop hypotheses for the mechanism of action (MOA) of selected drug combinations of programmatic interest to the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment & Diagnosis by systematically analyzing and interpreting a range of preexisting preclinical and clinical data on target inhibition, drug synergy, therapeutic response in laboratory models and/or in cancer patients, predictive and drug-response biomarkers, multi-omics, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and immunology.
- Design, present, and coordinate the necessary experimental work to fill knowledge gaps as necessary and then to directly test the MOA hypotheses, some of which research will be collaborative work within a team as well as with other groups, including the FNLCR Molecular Characterization Laboratory (MoCha), Proteomics Characterization Laboratory, Clinical Pharmacodynamic Biomarkers Program, and the NCI Biological Testing Branch.
- Lead and conduct experiments to test and refine the MOA hypotheses of the selected drug combinations by leveraging appropriate experimental methods, technologies, and tumor models.
- Sufficiently define and prove the MOA for drug combinations for manuscripts describing them.
Basic Qualifications
To be considered for this position, you must minimally meet the knowledge, skills, and abilities listed below:
- Possession of a doctoral degree in a biomedical field (e.g., D.V.M., D.Sc., M.D., or Ph.D.) from an accredited college or university according to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA. Foreign degrees must be evaluated for U.S.
- In addition to the education requirement, a minimum of two (2) years of innovative experimental investigations into drug mechanisms of action that demonstrate the creativity, independent thinking, and talent for converting ideas into laboratory experiments that will be essential for success in this position.
- Demonstrated expertise in appropriately applying experimental methods and technology tools that are relevant for investigating drug MOA and pharmacology, including the fields of cell biology, immunology, genetics, genomics, molecular biology, biochemistry, chemistry, enzymology, pharmacology, drug discovery and/or similar disciplines.
- Productive experience in computational analyses of large data sets, appropriate statistical analytical procedures, and accurate interpretations to provide scientific insights into drug pharmacology and MOA.
- Must be an excellent team player, able to thrive in a collaborative setting, and forward-thinking with exceptional experimental, record-keeping, and problem-solving skills.
- Must have high integrity and standards for research rigor and reproducibility.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, troubleshooting, and organizational skills, including excellent skills at converting laboratory research findings into clear and meaningful presentations and documents.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
Candidates with these desired skills will be given preferential consideration:
- Formal education, training and experience in bioinformatics, data science, and/or artificial intelligence as applied to drug MOA/pharmacology investigations.
- Productive experience with experimental immunology and/or immunotherapeutics.
- Expertise in applying high-resolution imaging and microscopy methodologies to interrogate patient-derived tumor models.
- Prior experience in an applied R&D environment, such as a research institute, the pharmaceutical sector, and/or the biotechnology sector.
- Scientific contributions that are relevant to drug MOA such as independently producing research work, authoring and/or co-authoring publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and by presenting papers before professional societies.
