Postdoctoral Fellow, Novel In Vivo Engineered Cell Therapy for Immune Diseases

Job Description

Job DescriptionCompany Description

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.

Job Description

Program Overview

AbbVie needs outstanding individuals willing to challenge themselves to find the best solutions for our patients. The AbbVie Postdoctoral Program is one way we are doing just that. AbbVie Postdoctoral Fellows serve as technical experts who investigate, develop, and optimize new methods and techniques to address critical project or functional area needs. Participants will improve existing or develop new laboratory methods and processes, read and adapt literature to accomplish assignments, and should have mastery of a range of experimental techniques and data analysis specific to their area of expertise.

The Postdoctoral Program supports investigational and experimental research where publication is an important component. Participants will be mentored by renowned industry scientists and collaborators at AbbVie and focus on delivering cutting-edge advancements in Discovery, Development Sciences, and Aesthetics which includes fields such as chemistry, biology, pharmaceutical science, and computational information sciences. This enriching training program offers a balance of supervised investigation and work experience in a learning environment that will expose the participant to activities across the drug development process.

We are seeking scientists from U.S.-based academic institutions who can be matched to projects within their area of scientific expertise for this unique 2-3-year assignment. Applicants who are awarded a postdoctoral position will have the opportunity to build a solid career foundation in the pharmaceutical industry while contributing to advancing human health through AbbVie’s industry-leading biopharmaceutical pipeline.

Role Overview

This postdoctoral role will be hosted within AbbVie’s Immunology Discovery Research and support a cutting-edge in vivo engineered cell therapy program with revolutionary potential to deliver cures for multiple immune diseases. Specifically, this postdoctoral fellow will focus on establishing biology models and assays relevant to the in vivo cell therapy platform, generating and testing novel in vivo cell therapy designs, publishing technical validation data sets on in vivo cell therapy constructs, and help advance our in vivo cell therapy pipeline projects. The postdoc will be directly supervised by the leader of this in vivo cell therapy platform, and get support from mentorship committee members who are experts and leaders of key related programs and function areas, and our in vivo cell therapy work group members.

The postdoc will primarily conduct lab-based research activities, but will also get great exposure and presentation opportunities with in-house stakeholders across sites and areas, attend external conferences to present publishable results, and take the lead to generate first-author manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals. In addition, the postdoc may interact with external collaborators established through the cell therapy program to expand professional network and research experience.

The postdoc may be based at either our North Chicago, IL or Cambridge, MA sites, and will work closely in a collaborative and synergistic manner with colleagues across multiple sites and groups.

Key Responsibilities

• Generate new research strategies to effectively address the needs of the postdoc project.
• Collaborate with functional and technical experts to facilitate scientific achievement.
• Maintain a high level of productivity in the laboratory setting.
• Effectively write and communicate research materials.
• Resolve research hurdles by effectively utilizing available information and technical expertise.
• Proactively seek out new information in the literature and incorporate this into individual project(s) as well as the overall program.
• Publish research in peer-reviewed journals and present work at scientific conferences aligned with business objectives.
• Demonstrate a high degree of responsibility in maintaining scientific standards and safe laboratory practices.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• PhD in Immunology, Cell Biology, or a related research field with a good publication record (summer and fall graduates are also welcome to apply).
• Strong lab research experience with primary human immune cell types especially myeloid cells.
• Strong research experience with immune cell signaling and regulation mechanisms.
• Experience with multi-color flow cytometry, ELISA, western blot, qPCR and other immunology research skills.
• Record of scientific initiative and creativity in research or development activities.
• Capable of independently designing and executing experiments, interpreting data, and identifying appropriate follow-up strategies.
• Excellent project management skills. Ability to multitask and work within timelines.
• Ability to resolve key project hurdles and assumptions by effectively utilizing available information and technical expertise.
• Demonstrated scientific writing skills and strong verbal communication skills.
• Global mindset to thrive in a diverse culture and environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Research experience with mRNA LNP and/or other in vivo cell engineering delivery systems.
• Research experience with disease pathogenesis and therapy development (autoimmune diseases).
• Research experience with fibroblast and ECM biology especially in the setting of immune diseases.

Key Leadership Competencies

• Builds strong relationships with peers and cross functionally with partners outside of team to enable higher performance.
• Learns fast, grasps the "essence" and can change course quickly where indicated.
• Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo.
• Creates a learning environment; open to suggestions and experimentation for improvement.
• Embraces the ideas of others, nurtures innovation, and manages to reality.

Candidates progressing to the final round of the interview process will be asked to provide three letters of recommendation (including one from the Thesis Advisor) and a letter of intent to pursue the postdoctoral position.

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​​

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.​​

• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.​​

• This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs. ​​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.

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