Astex Pharmaceuticals is a world leader in innovative drug discovery and development. The company has successfully applied its proprietary Fragment-Based Drug Discovery platform to generate multiple new drug candidates that are progressing in clinical development. Successful collaborations have led to three launched oncology drugs (Kisqali® partnered with Novartis, Balversa® partnered with Janssen and Truqap™ partnered with AstraZeneca). Astex continues to grow and focuses on Neurological Disorders and Oncology.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Ph.D. in an appropriate subject area as defined above. One or more years of postdoctoral experience is highly desirable.
• Innovation and Problem-Solving: Proven track record of innovation, scientific rigour and complex problem-solving is essential, as evidenced by publication of research articles in high-impact peer-reviewed journals.
• Communication Skills: The candidate is expected to have excellent verbal and written communication skills, and a proven track record of science communication at national and international conferences.
• Independent Research: Capability to independently plan and execute research objectives is essential.
• Team Collaboration: Strong team-work skills and a desire to work collaboratively within a dynamic multidisciplinary environment.
• Cross-disciplinary Communication: Ability to communicate effectively with scientists from various disciplines and work proficiently across dynamic academic and industrial research environments.

We are excited to offer three Sustaining Innovation postdoctoral research positions to help drive the next evolution of this platform. The successful candidates will work together as a team to develop novel technologies for fragment screening, potentially leveraging covalent approaches through a range of crosslinking chemistries and applying to both recombinant proteins and cellular systems. A defining aspect of the project will be high resolution structural characterization of cross-linked protein – fragment complexes using our state-of-the-art resources in X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. The project will explore the potential for such fragments to identify novel sites on challenging protein targets (e.g. cryptic pockets) and explore their biological relevance.
The project requires expertise and collaboration across a range of scientific disciplines; hence applications are invited from candidates specialising in the fields of chemical biology and protein structure determination. We are looking for creative and highly motivated scientists with expertise in a selection of the following subject areas: synthetic organic chemistry, protein mass spectrometry, covalent fragment screening, cell-based chemoproteomics, biophysical methods, protein expression and purification, X-ray crystallography, single particle cryo-electron microscopy.
Astex would be happy to hear from candidates having innovative project proposals that fall within the overall remit described above, and candidates are welcome to outline their ideas or motivation in a maximum one-page summary as part of their application.