Leading a
renaissance
in kidney disease
treatment
Leading a
renaissance
in kidney disease
treatment
Focus
Focus
Goldfinch is singularly focused on discovering and developing precision therapies for patients with kidney disease.
Chronic kidney disease is a driver of mortality across age, race, and stage of disease progression, affecting over 1 in 9 people worldwide. It has emerged as a global epidemic and growing problem that places an enormous social and economic burden on patients, their families, and society.
Advances in kidney transplantation and dialysis over half a century ago extended life for patients with kidney failure, yet the current standard of care for patients with kidney disease remains inadequate, and there is an urgent need for new treatment options.
Recent breakthroughs in genetics and biology have generated an unparalleled understanding of the biological pathways that drive kidney disease. Goldfinch is uniquely positioned to translate these discoveries into new therapies that target the molecular causes of kidney disease.
The burden of kidney disease for patients and society
team
team
Goldfinch brings together experts in the field and experienced leaders with a shared mission to pioneer new treatments for patients with kidney disease.
LEADERSHIP
Abbie Celniker, Ph.D
Interim CEO
Abbie Celniker, Ph.D.
Interim CEO
Abbie Celniker is a partner at Third Rock Ventures, and brings 30 years of experience in R&D and senior leadership roles. Abbie focuses on the formation, development and strategy of Third Rock's portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, she served as president and CEO of Eleven Biotherapeutics since 2011. Previously, Abbie was the president and CEO of Taligen Therapeutics from 2008 to 2011, when Taligen Therapeutics was acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals; following the acquisition, she served as Alexion's executive vice president, translational medicine. She has served as the global head of biologics of Novartis AG, the senior vice president of R&D strategy and operations of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the vice president of protein technologies of the Wyeth Research facilities.
Abbie is the chair of MassBio's board of directors, a member of the board of ImaginAb, where she was previously the chair, and a member of the scientific advisory board for Adimab. She is also a member of the board of directors of the nonprofit Unitio and T1D. She has a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Arizona.
Neil Exter
Interim COO
Neil Exter
Interim COO
Neil Exter is a partner at Third Rock Ventures, which he joined in 2007. Neil has more than 20 years of business development and strategic experience facilitating the successful development and implementation of operations and collaborations across the spectrum of newly emerging and established biotechnology companies. He plays an integral role in the formation, development and business strategy for portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Third Rock, Neil was chief business officer of Alantos Pharmaceuticals, leading the sale of the company to Amgen, and earlier, served as vice president for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, directing in-licensing and M&A. Earlier in his career, Neil held various executive and senior management roles within the high technology industry, including tenures at Hewlett Packard and Wang Laboratories.
Neil holds an MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School, an M.S. from Stanford University and a B.S. from Cornell University. He is a member of the Research Committee of Children's Hospital Boston, a member of the investment committee of the Innovation Research Fund and Innovation Advisory Board at Partners Healthcare and the treasurer and a member of the board of directors of the New England Venture Capital Association. In addition, Neil serves as a member of the Advisory Council of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Cornell University and the board of visitors of Columbia College.
Phil Reilly, M.D., J.D.
Interim CMO
Phil Reilly, M.D., J.D.
Interim CMO
Phil Reilly is a Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures, which he joined in 2008 to discover, launch and build companies pursuing breakthrough treatments for rare genetic diseases. He is a highly respected clinical geneticist with an extensive track record of launching and building companies in the rare disease space.
In addition to his role at Third Rock, Phil is a trustee emeritus of Cornell University, is an Overseer of Weill Cornell Medical College, and serves on the Advisory Board to the Boston University School of Public Health. Prior to joining Third Rock, he was the chief executive officer and chairman of Interleukin Genetics, and before that, he was the executive director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Mental Retardation. He served twice (2000 and 2003) as president of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics. He is a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles in scholarly journals and has published seven books including most recently Orphan: The Quest to Save Children with Rare Genetic Disorders. Phil has held teaching positions at Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and holds an M.D. from Yale University, a J.D. from Columbia University, is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and is board certified in internal medicine and clinical genetics.
Jean-Christophe Harmange, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery
Jean-Christophe Harmange, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery
Jean-Christophe Harmange joined Goldfinch Bio after serving as Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Third Rock Ventures, where he played a leading role in launching Goldfinch Bio. Jean-Christophe brings more than 20 years of drug discovery, preclinical and early clinical development experience in large and small biopharmaceutical companies. He has led multidisciplinary discovery teams and research and development organizations in delivering several clinical development candidates. Jean-Christophe is co-inventor on more than 30 issued U.S. patents and the author of numerous publications.
Prior to his tenure at Third Rock Ventures, he served as the executive director of drug discovery at Constellation Pharmaceuticals where he was integral in building one of the premier epigenetic drug discovery organizations. He also held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen, Eisai and Servier. Jean-Christophe received his Pharm.D. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Université Paris-Sud and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University in Professor Yosito Kishi's laboratory.
Peter Mundel, M.D.
Senior Vice President of Biology
Peter Mundel, M.D.
Senior Vice President of Biology
Peter Mundel joined Goldfinch Bio after serving as a Consultant to Third Rock Ventures, where he played a leading role in the creation and launch of Goldfinch Bio. Peter brings more than 25 years of experience as a leader in academic research, most recently at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. A major focus of Peter's work has been the development of precision therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases through a mechanistic understanding of the cell biology and pathology of the kidney, with a focus on podocytes. A pioneer of molecularly targeted treatment for proteinuric kidney disease, Peter has published more than 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has given numerous invited lectures nationally and internationally. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
As a recognized leader in the field of nephrology, Peter is the recipient of many awards including the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology and the American Heart Association. Peter holds an M.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Thomas Tibbitts, Ph.D.
Vice President of Computational Discovery
Thomas Tibbitts, Ph.D.
Vice President of Computational Discovery
Thomas Tibbitts comes to Goldfinch Bio from an immuno-oncology pharma company where he spent 11 years contributing to a wide range of drug discovery projects, leading structure-guided drug design as a co-inventor on a number of patents for small molecule therapeutics, two of which are currently in clinical development. As the genomics revolution took hold, he built out computational translational genomics to support clinical trials, and helped drive preclinical studies using transcriptomics to elucidate the mechanism of drug action in the tumor microenvironment and provide a basis for rational I/O drug combinations. He brings expertise in genomics, transcriptomics, informatics, software development, image analysis, protein crystallography and cloud computing. As leader of the patient registry at Goldfinch, he is passionate about leveraging his eclectic skill set and experience in genomics to bring new precision medicines to patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics and has co-authored recent papers in major journals including Nature and J. Medicinal Chemistry.
Thomas Martz
Director of Corporate Development
Thomas Martz
Director of Corporate Development
Thomas Martz joined Goldfinch Bio after serving as a Senior Associate at Third Rock Ventures, where he played a leading role in the formation and launch of Goldfinch. Thomas joined Third Rock in 2015 to focus on new company creation and due diligence.
Prior to Third Rock, Thomas obtained his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he interned in multiple strategic and business development roles at biotechnology companies including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Editas Medicine and Eleven Biotherapeutics. Previously, Thomas was a senior consultant in Deloitte's Life Sciences practice, where he worked with life sciences organizations and stakeholders in scientific and technological areas spanning R&D strategy and commercial operations. Before Deloitte, Thomas worked in multiple roles of increasing responsibility across biopharmaceutical research at Novartis and Biogen. In addition to his MBA, Thomas holds a B.S. in biochemistry from Boston College.
Founders and advisors
Our Founders and Advisors are world-renowned scientists and clinicians at the forefront of kidney biology, genetics, and genomics.
Joseph Bonventre, M.D., Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School, MIT, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Joseph Bonventre, M.D., Ph.D.
Samuel A. Levin Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chief of the Renal Division and Founding Chief of the Engineering in Medicine Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Joseph Bonventre's research focuses primarily on the study of kidney injury and repair and signal transduction, with a special emphasis on the role of inflammation, biomarkers and stem cells. He has more than 350 original research publications, 150 reviews/chapters and editorials and 3 books. His recent work also involves the generation of kidney organoids from stem cells and their use in kidney disease modeling. He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of American Physicians (AAP), the American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AMBIE). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI).
Joseph is past-president of the American Society of Nephrology and founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Space Biology Research Institute. Joseph has chaired and served on many NIH Study Sections and is Editor of Seminars in Nephrology. He has been awarded the Osler Medal of the Royal Society of Physicians and the Bywaters Award of the International Society of Nephrology. He currently serves as a member of the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Advisory Council.
In addition to his B.S. with distinction in Engineering Physics from Cornell, Joseph holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in biophysics from Harvard University. He has honorary doctorate degrees from Mt. Saint Mary's College and from the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology in Norway. He was Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology for 10 years.
Anna Greka, M.D., Ph.D.
The Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Anna Greka, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Founding Director of Glom-NExT Center for Glomerular Kidney Disease and Novel Experimental Therapeutics
Anna Greka leads an interdisciplinary team of students, postdoctoral fellows and staff scientists in laboratories at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute working on diverse projects spanning ion channel biophysics, pharmacology, cell biology, biochemistry, imaging, in vivo studies and computational biology.
Anna currently serves as the founding director of Glom-NExT, a center focused on the development of novel experimental therapeutics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In addition to teaching at Harvard Medical School, she serves on the Harvard-MIT MD-PhD Leadership Council.
Anna has given numerous invited lectures nationally and internationally, and she is the recipient of several honors including a career development award from the American Society of Nephrology, a 2014 Top10 Award from the Clinical Research Council, and a 2014 Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
Anna holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT M.D.-Ph.D. program in the Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). She completed her graduate work in the laboratory of David Clapham in work funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Fellowship.
Friedhelm Hildebrandt, M.D.
Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital
Friedhelm Hildebrandt, M.D.
Warren E. Grupe Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School
Chief of the Division of Nephrology of Boston Children's Hospital
Friedhelm Hildebrandt's research work is concerned with the identification and functional characterization of recessive single-gene causes of kidney diseases in children and young adults, including nephrotic syndrome, cystic renal ciliopathies, and congenital anomalies of the kidney. His group has identified over 80 novel monogenic causative genes for chronic kidney disease and delineated the related pathogeneses.
Friedhelm has published over 280 original articles in high-ranking journals. He has received the Mead Johnson Award by the Pediatric Academic Societies, the Homer W. Smith Award by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the Lillian Jean Kaplan Award for PKD Research, and the Franz Volhard Award. He is a member of the American Association of Physicians (AAP), the German National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine (NAS/IOM), and is an alumnus investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Daniel MacArthur, Ph.D.
The Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Daniel MacArthur, Ph.D.
Co-Director of the Medical and Population Genetics Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
Daniel MacArthur is a geneticist with a long-standing focus on the use of large-scale genomic data sets to improve the interpretation of human genetic variation, with a special focus on rare disease diagnosis. He led the formation of the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC), a collection of sequence data from over 60,000 people, which has become a critical resource in clinical genetics. He also co-directs the Broad Institute's Center for Mendelian Genomics, and has led the sequencing of over 3,000 members of families affected by rare disease. He has over 15 years of experience in human genetics, including a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia, and postdoctoral training in genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK.
Peter Mundel, M.D.
Goldfinch Bio
Peter Mundel, M.D.
Senior Vice President of Biology, Goldfinch Bio
Peter Mundel joined Goldfinch Bio after serving as a Consultant to Third Rock Ventures, where he played a leading role in the creation and launch of Goldfinch Bio. Peter brings more than 25 years of experience as a leader in academic research, most recently at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. A major focus of Peter's work has been the development of precision therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases through a mechanistic understanding of the cell biology and pathology of the kidney, with a focus on podocytes. A pioneer of molecularly targeted treatment for proteinuric kidney disease, Peter has published more than 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has given numerous invited lectures nationally and internationally. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
As a recognized leader in the field of nephrology, Peter is the recipient of many awards including the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology and the American Heart Association. Peter holds an M.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Stefan Somlo, M.D.
Yale School of Medicine
Stefan Somlo, M.D.
C. N. H. Long Professor of Medicine, Professor of Genetics, and Chief of the Section of Nephrology at the Yale School of Medicine
Steve Somlo's research interest over the past 25 years has been to understand the genetic and biological bases of human polycystic kidney and liver diseases. His laboratory began with discovering disease genes for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD2), isolated polycystic liver disease (PRKCSH, SEC63) and recessive polycystic kidney disease (PKHD1). His group used these discoveries as the starting point from which to define both genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying the respective human diseases.
Steve graduated from Harvard College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He did his clinical training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Yale and was on faculty at Albert Einstein before returning to Yale. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians and is a recipient of the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Polycystic Kidney Disease Research and the Homer W. Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology.
Approach
Approach
Goldfinch is integrating breakthroughs in kidney genetics and biology to identify new therapeutic targets and advance first-in-class drug candidates to treat patients with kidney disease.
Goldfinch’s Product Engine will industrialize the integration of genetics and kidney biology and confer a differentiated ability to identify, validate, and pursue novel therapeutic targets for kidney disease.
Programs
Programs
Goldfinch’s therapeutic programs are underscored by strong genetic validation and a deep familiarity of the biological pathways that cause disease. Our initial efforts are focused on focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and polycystic kidney disease (PKD).
FOCAL SEGMENTAL GLOMERULOSCLEROSIS (FSGS)
Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a rare kidney disorder, is a histopathologic diagnosis characterized by severe scarring of the kidney's filtering units, or glomeruli, leading to an excess of essential proteins spilling into the urine, called proteinuria. FSGS is a leading cause of kidney failure, and patients with diagnosed FSGS are at increased risk of heart attack, stroke and premature death.
There are currently no FDA approved treatments for FSGS. Existing treatments are non-specific, do not alter the progression of disease and carry significant toxicities.
Goldfinch is leading the charge to develop treatments targeting the molecular causes of FSGS to drastically improve the lives of patients suffering from this devastating, life-shortening condition.
POLYCYSTIC KIDNEY DISEASE (PKD)
Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is one of the most common single gene diseases, affecting more than 600,000 people in the US and 12 million worldwide. The disease is passed on from parent to child, with each child of an affected parent having a 1-in-2 chance of inheriting the disorder, which does not skip generations.
ADPKD patients develop fluid filled cysts in both kidneys that increase in number and size over time, culminating in end stage kidney disease in half of affected individuals by middle age. ADPKD commonly causes liver cysts which arise from bile ducts and can sometimes grow large enough to cause symptoms as well. In the United States, 1 in 20 individuals either on dialysis or with a kidney transplant has ADPKD.
There are no FDA approved therapies specifically targeting ADPKD and no means by which to alter the course of the disease.
Goldfinch is leveraging scientific discoveries based on the known genes that cause ADPKD to discover treatments to alter the course of ADPKD and drastically improve the lives of patients suffering from this chronic and debilitating disease.
Patients
Patients
It is the patients with kidney disease who will lead us to the understanding of pathways and targets that will drive transformative drug development. To accomplish this, we will partner with patients to build the world’s most comprehensive registry of individuals with molecularly defined kidney disease.
Goldfinch is assembling a database of genetic, genomic and clinical information from consented patients who have provided thousands of DNA samples and anonymized clinical records. Building off of the studies of our founders and partners, we will deeply study DNA and correlate findings with clinical data. We will then use novel computational tools to mine for evidence of the DNA variants that increase risk for kidney disease and suggest new ways to treat and prevent it.
Careers
Careers
At Goldfinch, we are pioneering a new approach to discover and develop therapeutics for kidney disease that is unprecedented.
Where others see risk, we see opportunity to make an impact and redefine the state of care for patients with kidney disease. We recognize the importance of collaboration, and strive to work alongside patients, clinicians and other partners to empower patients and develop treatments for conditions where no approved therapies exist.
We’re looking for teammates who relish the challenge, and are compelled to leave a positive mark on the lives of colleagues and patients alike.
If this sounds like the community you want to grow with, we invite you to explore our current career opportunities below.
If you would like to be considered for an opportunity at Goldfinch Bio, please submit your CV with the title of the position in the subject line to careers@goldfinchbio.com.
JOIN THE RENAISSANCE
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Early Development Project Manager
The Role
Goldfinch is seeking a hands-on individual to become an integral member of the R&D team, contributing to the overall management of our early development programs. This person will play an instrumental role in organizing and advancing critical R&D programs for Goldfinch with approximately 75% of time spent on internal project management and approximately 25% of time spent on external study coordination.
Major Responsibilities
- In partnership with the Program and departmental leaders, manage activities including program planning and milestones tracking, meeting management/minutes, and internal reporting.
- Ensure coordination of activities and deliverables across all functions.
- Develop and implement program management best practices and associated tools.
- Collaborate cross-functionally to develop and manage the program budgets, including resource tracking and scenario planning.
- Ensure communication flow between internal project teams, founders and other outside collaborators to maximize scientific outcomes and progress.
- Coordinate external study with CROs as needed.
Requirements and Qualifications
- EDUCATION
- BS degree required, MS or PhD in the sciences preferred.
- REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- 3-5 years of relevant biotech or pharmaceutical industry experience (ideally as a bench scientist).
- At least 1-3 years’ experience in project management.
- Experience managing projects across discovery and preclinical programs; experience coordinating cross functional activities through IND submission preferred.
- Operational experience and familiarity with the drug development process, including function-level activities and external regulatory requirements.
- Experience setting and maintaining budgets.
- KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- Ability to influence across multiple functions and levels, effectively work with different personalities and styles, and efficiently prioritize activities.
- Excellent communication skills; comfortable navigating complexity and ambiguity in a fast-paced environment.
- Knowledge of project management tools (Microsoft Project, Excel, PowerPoint).
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Principal/Senior Scientist, Pharmacology and Translational Research
The Opportunity
We’re seeking a highly motivated and technically excellent Principal Scientist with a strong background in pharmacology and translational research to join our Pharmacology and Nonclinical Development Department to contribute to building our discovery pipeline for renal diseases. The successful candidate will focus on the development of in vitro and in vivo pharmacology models and on the identification of novel biomarkers to advance the Goldfinch Bio pipeline. Responsibilities include setting up the pharmacology infrastructure, strategy and vision for kidney diseases to help advance the Goldfinch Bio pipeline.
Major Responsibilities
- Develop in vitro assays and implement in vivo models to evaluate the PK/PD and efficacy of pipeline compounds. PK/PD relationship, and novel biomarkers to characterize molecules for potential therapeutic effects.
- Develop strategy and scientific approach to identify novel diagnostic, prognostic, and pharmacodynamic biomarkers to enable scientific driven go/no go decisions for programs to assist in program progression.
- Implement the strategy by establishing and managing external research collaborations.
- Write protocols, evaluate and analyze data, write reports and present data-driven recommendations to project teams to enable scientific driven go/no go decisions for programs.
- Participate in and lead cross-functional teams to support preclinical drug discovery and development.
- Prepare, review and deliver high quality scientific presentations for internal/external use.
- Commitment to help the team achieve deliverables and meet aggressive timelines.
- Keep abreast of innovative technologies and their relevance with the aim of bringing therapies to patients faster or more efficiently.
Requirements and Qualifications
- EDUCATION
- PhD in Pharmacology, Biochemistry or related field.
- REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- Minimum of 8 years post-degree research in an industry setting.
- Strong publication record.
- Extensive experience in cellular and biochemical science such as standard molecular biology and protein biochemistry techniques and/or mass spectrometry technologies for biomarker identification is required.
- Demonstrated ability to integrate pharmacology concepts.
- Experience managing CROs.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and proven success working in matrix environments.
- Experience with regulatory submissions of orphan drugs is a plus.
- KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- Hands on experience in the development and validation of biomarker assays in the preclinical and clinical setting required.
- Strong leadership and evidence of strategic scientific thinking.
- Effective managerial skills and the ability to lead independent scientists with different skill sets.
- Expertise in cutting edge assay technologies and proven assay troubleshooting skills.
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Senior Research Associate, Biology
The Opportunity
The Senior Research Associate will develop, implement and execute in vivo and in vitro assays required for the advancement of high priority projects and Goldfinch Bio's Product Engine.
Major Responsibilities
- Development and implementation of a diverse set of cellular assays used to support lead discovery
- In partnership with scientific leadership design, execute, troubleshoot, and interpret biological experiments in support of program objectives
- Interact and communicate results and conclusions to the biology team and cross-functional project teams
Requirements and Qualifications
- B.S. or M.S. in cell and/or molecular biology or pharmacology
- 3 to 5 years of industry experience
- Experience developing cellular assays used to drive early-stage programs towards candidate selection, including miniaturization and automation of high-content imaging, as well as protein and RNA assays
- Target validation experience with ability to assay target biology with genetic perturbation techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 and shRNA, in addition to the construction of stable cell lines expressing genes of interest
- Demonstrated ability to thrive in a team environment
- Strong experimental background and a rigorous, analytical approach to problem solving
- Familiarity with high-content phenotypic screening
- Experience with visualization software and associated analysis of rich cellular datasets
- Some weekend work will be required
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Lead Statistical Geneticist/Computational Biologist
The Opportunity
At the very heart of Goldfinch’s effort to bring precision medicines to kidney disease is our Patient Registry. Through global collaborations and partnerships, we are bringing together patients with FSGS/proteinuria worldwide and building a comprehensive data warehouse containing many thousands of whole genome sequences from patient samples, coupled to deep longitudinal clinical profiles.
Major Responsibilities
- We seek a statistical geneticist or biostatistician who is well-versed in analyzing large sets of human genomic and transcriptomic data of complex phenotypes. This lead position is central to the mission of our company and on our critical path to success in the clinic, which will depend on our ability to translate human genetic discoveries in kidney disease into novel therapeutic targets. The individual in this role will work very closely with the heads of biology, preclinical, clinical and computational biology, as well as with our academic founders.
- Using samples obtained through collaborations and partnerships, this individual will help design a comprehensive clinico-genomics data warehouse of the highest quality. She/he will develop rigorous quality control procedures for whole genome sequences, transcriptomic (RNAseq) data, and longitudinal clinical profiles, and lead studies leveraging best-practice statistical approaches to explore the association of genetic variants with onset and progression of disease with the goal of identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Moreover, she/he will use large-scale transcriptomic data sets from patient tissue to identify gene expression changes associated with disease state which may be useful as clinical biomarkers.
- The sheer volume of the data generated, and potential impact on a profoundly underserved patient population, makes this an exciting opportunity for a motivated statistical geneticist who wishes to apply the results of genetic investigation to support the discovery of novel precision medicines and lead a renaissance in the treatment of kidney disease.
Requirements and Qualifications
- EDUCATION
- Ph.D. or M.D., Ph.D. in Human Genetics, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Bioinformatics or related field.
- REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- 2-5 years’ post-degree experience in an academic or industrial setting preferred, but candidates at all levels will be considered.
- KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- Solid foundation in statistics and genetics.
- Experience using large-scale phenotype and genetic data.
- Knowledge of sequence alignment and variant calling pipelines (BWA, STAR, GATK, etc)
- Experience using clinical data, electronic medical records, and laboratory data for analysis of complex phenotypes.
- Experience with RNAseq data analysis and eQTL studies a plus.
- Knowledge of statistical genetics software (PLINK/SCAT/GAVA).
- Experience using statistical software (R/MATLAB/SAS).
- Programming/Scripting skills (Perl/Python/Shell/Java/Linux).
- Machine learning experience a plus.
- General knowledge of Cell Biology.
- Ability to work as part of a highly collaborative team.
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Principal or Senior Scientist
The Opportunity
Goldfinch Bio is looking for a highly qualified scientist to assist in setting up the infrastructure and build the drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic (DMPK) group in this startup biotech. This position reports to the Vice President of Pharmacology and Non Clinical Safety.
Major Responsibilities
- Set up the DMPK infrastructure, strategy and vision for Goldfinch Gio.
- Lead DMPK scientific initiatives to help advance the pipeline.
- Interact and collaborate with scientists across all disciplines in the organization.
- Independently or working with CROs, design protocols, process data and perform calculations, and write reports. Write and review relevant sections of regulatory documents.
- Design series or compound-specific DMPK strategies, and identify key DMPK studies that can be conducted to have impact on the progress of a drug in development.
- Critically review, interpret, communicate and summarize DMPK and bioanalytical data.
- Keep abreast of innovative technologies and their relevance with the aim of bringing therapies to patients faster.
Requirements and Qualifications
- EDUCATION
- PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry or Pharmacology with specific training in DMPK.
- REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- 7 – 15 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.
- KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- In depth understanding and with direct hands-on experience, with most models and assays used in DMPK, and corresponding applications, advantages and limitations.
- Expertise managing CROs, GLP guidelines, bioanalysis, and regulatory guidelines.
- Demonstrated ability to perform PK calculations, double check calculations performed by CROs, troubleshoot issues as they arise.
- Hands on experience with LC-MS/MS technology, and with bioanalytical work. Expertise in reviewing data, double checking calculations, proof reading documents.
- Ability to set forth strategic DMPK paths for compounds in different stages of development.
- Familiarity with regulatory submission process for orphan drugs.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and proven success working in matrix environments.
Note to Recruitment Agencies: Please do not forward any agency resumes. Goldfinch Bio is not responsible for any fees related to resumes that are unsolicited.
Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V.