Career Opportunities in the Foresite Capital Network

Company Description

LifeMine Therapeutics is reinventing drug discovery by mining fungal biodiversity to develop novel therapeutics to address previously intractable therapeutic challenges. Through its drug discovery engine and proprietary fungal strain collections, LifeMine has discovered, in genomic space, hundreds of potentially high-impact drug candidates relevant to targets across all major disease areas.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, LifeMine opened its European Headquarters in Basel. Our 4,000 m2 facility is in Klybeck, Basel, right next to the beautiful Rhine River and the train station, also close to City Center. The Klybeck area is home to many top US and Swiss pharmaceutical and Biotech companies in Europe’s biotechnology hub.

Job Summary

We are seeking a natural product drug hunter, deeply steeped in leadership of secondary metabolite search-and-retrieval campaigns to lead and expand the Natural Products group at LifeMine. The successful applicant will have a proven track record of creativity, innovation, and success across all facets of natural product drug discovery, with broad and deep knowledge of biosynthetic gene cluster architecture and function, natural product biosynthesis, comparative metabolomics, analytical and separation sciences, and structure elucidation. As a member of our R&D leadership team, keys to success in the role will be (i) strategy development and team building (hiring, mentoring, capabilities expansion) and (ii) collaboration across diverse scientific functions (Genomics, Data Sciences, Microbiology, Synthetic Biology, Proteomics, Discovery Chemistry, Pharmacology) to advance multiple programs in parallel. Join us as we create a natural product drug discovery engine like no other in existence today.

Job Responsibilities

• As part of and in collaboration with our R&D leadership team, develop an integrated Natural Products strategy to drive multiple programs in parallel to advance the overall company mission.
• Inspire and drive high performance across core functions of fermentation extractions, metabolite profiling and comparative metabolomics, analytical and separation sciences, and structure elucidation.
• Interface with upstream functions – Microbiology and Synthetic Biology – to ensure high impact experiments are designed and executed to drive secondary metabolite identification.
• Coordinate with downstream functions – Biochemistry, Biophysics, Cell Biology – to efficiently characterize a pipeline of samples spanning multiple programs.
• Implement new technologies, expand, and optimize internal capabilities, leverage external collaborations, and develop end-to-end natural products workflows including integration with multiomics and bioinformatic data.
• Grow the GEM Discovery group through identification, hiring, development, and retention of exceptional scientists at all levels.
• Communicate departmental strategy and experimental results to all levels of the organization in formal meetings (including Board of Directors meetings) and informally.

Job Requirements

• Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Molecular Microbiology, or a related field with 8+ years post-degree experience and a corresponding academic and entrepreneurial track record of achievement.
• Proven track record of program leadership and people management.
• Detailed technical expertise in analytical instrumentation, in particular LCMS, automation as well as workflow design.
• Expertise in fungal genetics and microbiology; demonstrated success in directed identification of novel natural products from biosynthetic gene clusters.
• Expertise in fermentation extractions, metabolite profiling and comparative metabolomics, analytical and separation sciences, and structure elucidation.
• Ability to integrate and analyze large metabolomic datasets with other omics and bioinformatic data.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and interpersonal skills.
• The successful candidate will be enthusiastic, innovative, collaborative and have the ability to learn, adapt, and thrive in a dynamic start-up environment.