Senior Scientist, Cell Culture and Banking

Location: Cambridge, UK

Salary: Competitive with excellent benefits 

AstraZeneca is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, we’re passionate about providing medicines that make a real difference in patient care. AstraZeneca is a place with an ambitious and collaborative culture, where you’ll feel valued, energised and rewarded for your ideas and contributions. A place where talented people can immerse themselves in their work and make significant contributions towards scientific excellence.

As the new range of targeted therapeutics move towards the clinic, we are placing an increased emphasis on understanding the links between the chosen molecular target, disease type/stage and drug responses. Key to this is the provision of high quality cellular models for research.

The Cell Culture and Banking team is critical for delivering these cellular models to enable our drug discovery projects. The team is now developing methods to prepare primary cell lines for projects aligned with our strategic objective of increasing the translatability of the cell models used in research.

We currently have a number of exciting opportunities for talented cell biologists to join our Cell Culture and Banking team in Cambridge.

You'll be part of a team accountable for

• Expansion and banking of a variety of immortalised cell lines using best practise aseptic techniques.
• Developing an industry leading capability for large scale isolation, handling, manipulation and storage of primary & organoid models.
• Large scale expansion of cell lines to support HTS.
• Retrieval of cell lines from cryogenic storage.
• Ensuring the highest quality is maintained by performing QC testing using techniques such as PCR, flow cytometry etc.
• Data management of cell line information.
• Maintaining an awareness of current developments in the literature and contribution to the continuous improvement process.

Essential Criteria

• MSc or Ph.D in Immunology, Cancer Biology, Molecular biology, Cell Engineering, or equivalent experience 
• Scientific excellence as shown by previous work or publication history.
• Experience with culturing immortalised cell lines or primary cells.
• Excellent team working, communication and networking skills.
• Experience of interacting optimally across disciplines, cultures and expertise.

Desirable Criteria

• Hands-on experience of cell or bio-banking.
• Experience with flow cytometry or PCR.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Experience of carrying out activities in a timely manner and to the highest standards.
• Proven willingness to work flexibly in a team with minimal direct supervision.
• Good knowledge and understanding of standard IT software packages (Outlook, Word etc.) Understanding of tracking databases would be beneficial.

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca, when we see an opportunity for change, we seize it and make it happen, because any opportunity no matter how small, can be the start of something big. Delivering life-changing medicines is about being results-oriented - finding those moments and recognising their potential. Join us on our journey to continue building an organisation to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re open to new ways of working, ground-breaking methods and bringing teams together.

So what’s next?

Are you already envisioning yourself joining our team, then we encourage your application before midnight on 5th September!

Where can I find out more?

Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/astrazenecacareers/

Follow AstraZeneca on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/astrazeneca_careers/?hl=en

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.