Acrivon is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision oncology medicines that it matches to patients whose tumors are predicted to be sensitive to each specific medicine by utilizing Acrivon’s proprietary proteomics-based patient responder identification platform, Acrivon Predictive Precision Proteomics, or AP3. The AP3 platform is engineered to measure compound-specific effects on the entire tumor cell protein signaling network and drug-induced resistance mechanisms in an unbiased manner. These distinctive capabilities enable AP3’s direct application for drug design optimization for monotherapy activity, the identification of rational drug combinations, and the creation of drug-specific proprietary OncoSignature companion diagnostics that are used to identify the patients most likely to benefit from Acrivon’s drug candidates.
Acrivon is currently advancing its lead candidate, ACR-368 (also known as prexasertib), a selective small molecule inhibitor targeting CHK1 and CHK2 in a potentially registrational Phase 2 trial across multiple tumor types. The company has received Fast Track designation from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the investigation of ACR-368 as monotherapy based on OncoSignature-predicted sensitivity in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian or endometrial cancer. Acrivon’s ACR-368 OncoSignature test, which has not yet obtained regulatory approval, has been extensively evaluated in preclinical studies, including in two separate, blinded, prospectively-designed studies on pretreatment tumor biopsies collected from past third-party Phase 2 trials in patients with ovarian cancer treated with ACR-368. The FDA has granted Breakthrough Device designation for the ACR-368 OncoSignature assay for the identification of ovarian cancer patients who may benefit from ACR-368 treatment. In addition to ACR-368, Acrivon is also leveraging its proprietary AP3 precision medicine platform for developing its co-crystallography-driven, internally-discovered preclinical stage pipeline programs. These include ACR-2316, a potent, selective WEE1/PKMYT1 inhibitor designed for superior single-agent activity as demonstrated in preclinical studies against benchmark inhibitors, and a cell cycle program with an undisclosed target.
Our global team operates out of two leading life science clusters, Watertown, MA and Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden.
Position OverviewThe Senior Scientist will be a key member of Acrivon Therapeutics’ Biology team and will work cross-functionally to support in vitro/in vivo pharmacology and translational studies. The Senior Scientist will independently design and execute experiments to explore mechanisms of action and resistance, identify/validate pharmacodynamic markers to support clinical development and assess PK/PD/efficacy of therapeutic molecules in preclinical animal models. The ideal candidate will lead internal and external research efforts to advance pipeline candidates. This position reports to our AD, In Vivo Pharmacology and will be based in Watertown, MA.
Duties And Responsibilities

• Work in close partnership with various functions such as target biology, biomarker, data science, and clinical to identify/validate pharmacodynamic biomarkers, mechanisms of resistance, and predictive biomarkers to inform on patient selection and rational combination strategies.
• Integrate different data modalities, such as phosphoproteomics and/or genomics, to develop hypothesis-driven clinical biomarker strategies. Experience working with reference biological databases and datasets (e.g., TCGA, DepMap) is a highly desired.
• Establish/validate, design and execute in vivo efficacy, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics studies externally to support preclinical and development programs.
• Utilize laboratory skills (i.e., ELISA, high content imaging, Western blot) to assess biomarker expression from normal/cancer cell line studies or tissues collected onsite or externally from animal studies.
• Leverage CROs, ensuring high quality data generation and delivery on timelines.
• Contribute to authorship of protocols, study procedures, and scientific manuscripts.

Requirements And Qualifications

• BS/MS with 8 years; or Ph.D. with 5 years of industry experience.
• Strong background in cancer biology, with focus on translational research and biomarker discovery highly desired.
• Demonstrated success in designing and executing pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and efficacy studies. Breadth of experience across solid/hematologic malignancies and various animal disease models is desired.
• Prior experience managing studies at domestic and/or international CROs.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex data sets, work independently and proactively on multiple projects in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Acrivon Therapeutics is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Acrivon Therapeutics complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.