Open Positions

The Position

We are seeking an exceptional synthetic chemist to help develop the next-generation of oligonucleotide medicines designed for delivery beyond the liver.

This role bridges solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis, novel RNA and DNA chemistries, and delivery-enabling bioconjugation.

Depending on your expertise and interests, you may focus on synthesizing oligonucleotides, delivery ligands, or linkers or on developing conjugated therapeutic candidates.

You will join a growing team of 25 chemists, cell biologists, and in vivo biologists in our 20,000-square-foot R&D facility outside Washington, D.C.

About You

You have a PhD in Chemistry, Materials Science, or a related discipline and a strong record of scientific accomplishment.

Exceptional candidates may come from oligonucleotide chemistry, peptide chemistry, carbohydrate chemistry, polymer chemistry, bioconjugation chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, or broader synthetic chemistry disciplines.

You should have deep expertise in one or more of the following:

Solid-Phase Synthesis
Experience with solid-phase synthesis, deprotection, purification, and characterization of RNA or DNA oligonucleotides, including siRNA, ASOs, or related modalities. Experience with backbone, sugar, base, and terminal modifications is highly valued. Substantial experience with solid-phase peptide synthesis or related synthetic platforms is also relevant, particularly for ligand synthesis, linker installation, or conjugate development.

Delivery & Bioconjugation
Experience designing, synthesizing, and optimizing bioconjugates to improve delivery, biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, cellular uptake, or in vivo potency. These may include conjugates incorporating oligonucleotides, peptides, antibodies, small molecules, carbohydrates, lipids, polymers, or other targeting moieties. Experience synthesizing or optimizing GalNAc, carbohydrate, peptide, lipid, polymer, or other ligand-conjugated candidates is highly valued.

Functionalization & Conjugation Chemistry
Experience developing or applying functionalized CPGs, synthesis supports, protected ligands, linkers, attachment handles, or on-column strategies to install delivery ligands onto oligonucleotides. Experience with solution-phase or post-synthetic conjugation, site-selective functionalization, orthogonal protecting groups, or bioorthogonal chemistry is also highly valued.

Analytical Chemistry
Experience with LC-MS and HPLC to assess candidate identity, purity, yield, and product quality. Experience with ion-exchange chromatography, reversed-phase chromatography, SEC, PAGE, or related analytical methods is also highly valued.

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting synthetic chemistry process development, scale-up, technology transfer, CDMO management, or cGMP manufacturing.

• Experience with cleavable and non-cleavable linker designs, including enzymatic, redox-sensitive, acid-labile, or related release strategies.

• Experience developing modified CPGs, phosphoramidites, activated esters, azide–alkyne click chemistry, amine- or thiol-reactive handles, or related approaches for solid-phase, on-column, or post-synthetic conjugation.

• Experience with formulation or particle-engineering approaches relevant to nucleic acid therapeutics, including spray drying, lyophilization, dry-powder inhalation, or controlled release.

• Experience testing therapeutic candidates in vitro or in vivo and using biological results to guide chemical design.

Education: PhD required
Experience: 5+ years of relevant R&D experience, including PhD work
Location: Rockville, MD (on-site)

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The Role

We are looking for an exceptional and rigorous analytical chemist to develop novel methods to characterize the identity, purity, and in vivo biodistribution of oligonucleotide therapeutic candidates.

This role spans both analytical and bioanalytical method development, with a focus on LC-MS and HPLC approaches to support oligonucleotide quality assessment, pharmacokinetics (PK), and tissue biodistribution.

Experience with oligonucleotide therapeutics is strongly preferred, but exceptional candidates from adjacent analytical chemistry fields willing to rapidly learn oligonucleotide chemistry are encouraged to apply.

You will join a growing team of 25 PhD biomedical scientists, chemists, and engineers.

About You

You have a PhD in Chemistry or a related field and demonstrated expertise in ONE or more of:

• Oligonucleotide Analytical Chemistry:
  Analytical methods for RNA or DNA oligonucleotides (e.g. siRNA, ASOs), including assessments of identity, purity, degradation products, and overall product quality.

• Chromatographic Methods:
  HPLC and related chromatographic methods relevant to oligonucleotide products, including ion-exchange, reversed-phase, SEC, or related approaches for identity, purity, and stability assessment.

• Bioanalysis for PK and Biodistribution:
  LC-MS-based quantitative workflows to enable quantification of oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide conjugates in biological matrices such as plasma, BALF, liver, lung, or other tissues for in vivo PK and biodistribution studies.

Education: PhD (Required) 

Experience: 5+ years of relevant R&D experience (including PhD work)

Location: Rockville, MD (onsite)

More Info & Apply

The Role

We are looking for an exceptional cancer biologist, immunologist, or cell biologist to help advance first-in-class therapeutic candidates from discovery to IND.

This is a growth-oriented position for an outstanding experimental biologist skilled in both cell-based and in vivo assays.

You will join a growing team of 25 in-house scientists across our synthetic biology, chemistry, immunology, cell biology, and in vivo biology teams.

You will report directly to the Head of Preclinical Biology and the President of R&D.

About You

You have a PhD in cancer biology, immunology, cell biology, virology, pharmacology or a related field.

You have 5+ years of in vitro and in vivo biology expertise, PhD work included, and demonstrated expertise in ONE or more of the following:

• Cancer biology, immunology, or cell biology: Cancer biology, metastasis, immune-cell biology, cell biology, or mechanisms of therapeutic response and resistance.

• Cell-based assays & screening: Designing, optimizing, and analyzing cell-based assays to evaluate therapeutic candidates, including assays of viability, proliferation, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, or immune activation. Experience in flow cytometry, imaging, qPCR, ELISA, or high-throughput screening is highly preferred.

• In vivo biology / pharmacology: Designing, executing, and analyzing in vivo studies to evaluate therapeutic candidates, including in tumor models, infectious disease models, or inflammatory disease models. Experience with immune / pharmacodynamic readouts, efficacy assays, toxicity readouts, tissue collection, biodistribution, or PK/PD is highly preferred.

Additional experience in ONE or more of the following is strongly preferred:

• Primary and translational assay systems: Experience with primary immune cells, PBMCs, organoids, co-culture systems, or other translational models.

• Immunology & flow cytometry: Experience with flow cytometry panel design, immune phenotyping, cytokine profiling, or functional immune assays.

• Therapeutic model systems: Deep experience with oncology efficacy models, infectious disease efficacy models, PK/PD studies, or biomarker-driven in vivo pharmacology.

• Novel therapeutic modalities: Experience evaluating and developing nucleic acid medicines, biologics, immunotherapies, cell therapies, antibodies, small molecules, or targeted cancer therapies.

Education & Training: PhD in Cancer Biology, Immunology, Virology, Cell Biology, Pharmacology, or a related field is required.

Experience: 5+ years of relevant in vitro and in vivo experimental biology experience, including PhD work.

Publication record: A strong publication record is highly valued.

Location: Rockville, MD (onsite)

More Info & Apply