(Jr.) Scientist

At
**Univercells**, we are on a mission to make health equally accessible to all. Through the combination of process development and engineering expertise, we create synergies to deliver game-changing production capacities to achieve our mission: biologics available and affordable to all

At
**Quantoom Biosciences**, a Univercells company, we are committed to solve some of the biggest production challenges facing vaccines and therapeutics. We believe we can solve the RNA production challenges. We aim to lower the entry barriers to making mRNA-based vaccines & therapeutics from development up to mass production.

At
**Quantoom Biosciences**, we give our partners greater access to drug development and production autonomy through technical and business model innovation. We do this by providing our partners with technology platforms that include more parts of the value chain in a single solution.

**_
MISSION:_**

Here, in Nívelles (Belgium), as
**_(Jr) Scientist in our RNA Research activities_**, you will join a collaborative team full of passionate change-makers and be a key contributor to the successful innovation of RNA molecular design capabilities and production processes. You will contribute to development of capabilities for design of high-performance RNA and to design of innovative RNA production processes in collaboration with Senior Scientists and external experts, and identify opportunities for incremental or fundamental improvement of existing pipelines and technologies.

**_
RESPONSIBILITIES :_**

**Scientific and operational activities**
- Identification, and contribution to development of new concepts for RNA molecular design and production of RNA-based medicines and other processes based on in vitro reactions;
- Contribution to design of studies for the purpose of evaluation or development of RNA molecular design capability and innovative RNA production processes and technologies,
- Management of materials, and stocks of consumables and reagents (in collaboration with lab technicians);
- Preparation and execution of lab work in autonomy and with complete traceability:

- Autonomous protocol writing, based on designed study,
- Organization and execution of operations associated with RNA production and technology development.

**Reporting**
- Writing and management of documentation related to experiments (study designs, protocols, reports) in an accurate, comprehensive, and timely manner, and following corporate procedures and templates,
- Collection and recording of results in defined forms with accuracy,
- Processing, interpretation, and reporting of results,
- Preparation of project summaries and updates for presentation to the company’s management team, as needed.

**Quality Safety and continuous improvement**
- Adherence to internal quality system in daily work,
- Generation of process quality documentation (procedures, work instructions, templates, etc.).

**REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS**:

- Master’s (or higher) degree in Molecular Biology, Biotechnology (or related field that involves detailed study of nucleic acids, genetics, etc.), with proven track record in Research & Development,
- Experience in:

- Genetic engineering and plasmid design (including optimization of coding sequences)
- Nucleic acid-based products (particularly: mRNA)
- Other fields of science, ideally in an industry setting, e.g., analytical sciences, mammalian cell culture, fermentation, purification,

is a significant plus,
- Experience in computational biology and bioinformatics is an asset,
- Knowledge of aseptic practices and work experience in cell culture, in BSL2 lab environment, is an asset,
- Knowledge of statistical design of experiments is an asset,
- Innovative mindset / scientific creativity: natural inclination to challenge the status quo and ability to conceptualize feasible process improvements (both evolutions and revolutions)
- Analytical mindset
- Integrity and transparency
- Strong sense of observation, inventive and critical mindset, scientific curiosity, and problem-solving skills,
- Proactivity, flexibility, work organizational skills
- Enthusiasm and adaptability/agility to work independently in a high-paced and fast-changing and multi-tasked environment on a variety of projects
- Capability to:

- Work in autonomy on both routine and new lab activities and capability of troubleshooting,
- Work in a cross-functional and multi-cultural team,
- Leverage know-how to contribute to the development of the new generation solutions,
- Fluency in French and good command of English (written and spoken)