What are the responsibilities and job description for the Internship, Cellular assay development – 6-months position at Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc?
Overview
Monte Rosa Therapeutics is seeking a passionate candidate for an internship in the Biology group to help us to eliminate disease causing proteins through targeted protein degradation – a novel and exciting way of drugging proteins that until recently were considered un-druggable.
The candidate will be joining the Discovery Technologies team and contribute to the development and implementation of a new cellular assay to assist in the characterization and continuous expansion of Monte Rosa’s proprietary chemical library. You would have the opportunity to learn about E3 ligase biology and develop valuable skills including cell line generation, cell-based assay development, automation and screening, and cross-functional interactions. You will also be joining a diverse, thoughtful, fun and collaborative environment that emphasizes teamwork and putting people first!
Responsibilities
- Cell culture: maintain diverse Mammalian cell lines in culture for their use in assays.
- Cell line engineering: lentiviral transduction (Gene overexpression, inducible expression), or CRISPR/Cas9 KO and KI. Expansion, banking and characterization (Western Blot, sequencing, functional activity) of generated cell lines.
- Carry out bioluminescence-based cellular assays to measure protein abundance in cells following compound treatment using the HiBiT-tagging system.
- Assay optimization: identification and fine-tuning of critical assay parameters such as optimal gene expression levels, seeding density, timeframe or co-treatments.
- Design and carry out experiments to address key scientific questions around the requirements for biological activity in a novel cell-based system by using appropriate controls, tool compounds and internal knowledge of our Molecular glues.
- High-throughput screening of compound libraries using automated liquid handlers to map out activity and build correlations with other readouts (engagement, proteomics)
Qualifications
- Our preference is for a student currently in a master’s degree program in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or a life science field.
- Proficiency in English (written and spoken).
- Strong desire to learn the most advanced approaches in drug discovery and targeted protein degradation.
- Previous experience with mammalian cell culture and working in a sterile environment (ideally BSL2 standards) is desired. Experience in molecular biology / biochemical techniques (e.g. Western Blot, DNA extraction, PCR, CRISPR/Cas9) is a plus.
- You are a fast learner and enjoy working in a team-based environment.
