Ansøgning til Postdocs & Researchers - Sprint Bioscience AB - Internship Projects VT26

Drug-discovery biology in pharmaceutical company

Target group

We are offering 2 separate internships for postdoc or researchers internships (3 months) within the Tumor Biology & Therapeutics team, located at Novum in Flemingsberg.

Presentation of the company

Sprint Bioscience is a Swedish pharmaceutical company focusing on early-stage drug discovery projects. The company specializes in rapid development of first-in-class small molecules in the oncology field mainly. Currently composed of 30 employees including x-ray crystallographers, computational chemists, biochemists, biologists and organic and medicinal chemists. Our multidisciplinary teams work collaboratively to progress our programs towards leading drug candidates, with full understanding of their binding mode, structure activity relationship and mechanism-of-action. The missions of the Tumor Biology & Therapeutics team, which will host the intern(s), is to explore the target biology and ultimately drive the development of our lead small molecules through the stages of cell-based efficacy assays to in vivo proof-of-concept.

Project 1: Evaluating the Efficacy and mechanism of action of new drugs in Primary Human Immune Cells

Immuno-oncology (IO) has fundamentally shifted the cancer treatment paradigm by moving away from targeting the tumor itself to modulating the host’s immune system. We intend to use blood cells from healthy donors to isolate specific cell types that can be used as cell models for our drug discovery programs. Methods that would be used are those relevant to immune oncology and immunology field. Furthermore, the complexity of the tumor microenvironment requires rigorous ex vivo validation to ensure these drug candidates effectively enhance anti-tumor immunity without inducing systemic toxicity. The possibility to develop assays to monitor blood toxicity is also contemplated.

Project 2: Evaluating the Efficacy and mechanism of action of new drugs using cancer cell lines

In this project the candidate will perform new cellular assays using cancer cell lines, in monocultures or in co-cultures with other cells of the tumor microenvironment. Methods that would be used are those relevant to cell biology, such as cell viability, readouts of signal transduction, cell activity, and changes in gene and protein expression, etc. All in a drug discovery biotech set-up where scientific excellence drives programs forward.

The candidate

The ideal candidate should hold a PhD and be interested in learning how small molecule drug discovery works in a multidisciplinary industry/biotech set up. The ideal candidate should have a background in tumor biology, immunology and cell biology as well as hands-on experience in cell culture are valuable.

Contact Information:

Simon Moussaud, PhD, Associate principal scientist

Tumor Biology & Therapeutics

Sprint Bioscience

Main: +46 (0)8­ 411 44 55

Direct: +46(0)73 432 68 84

E­mail: simon.moussaud@sprintbioscience.com