Career Opportunities Heading link
UICentre is the campus-wide drug discovery initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago that utilizes existing resources to leverage the expertise of scientist and clinician teams across campus in collaborative engagement in translational research in drug discovery and development. The mission of UICentre is transformative: to use cultural, technical and educational resources at UIC to overcome the obstacles to drug discovery. UICentre engages multi-disciplinary teams in a collaborative environment to discover targeted novel therapeutic agents. UICentre creates and supports multidisciplinary collaborations that transform basic science projects into drug discovery initiatives. The goal of UICentre is to change and enhance the treatment and management of human diseases by applying drug discovery skills to leverage basic scientific knowledge, resulting in novel therapeutics.
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Medicinal Chemistry Research Scientists
This position will work with the UICentre leadership and project teams to design, synthesize, and optimize novel chemical entities in support of drug discovery and development. The Research Scientist will manage UICentre chemical laboratories and libraries. The Research Scientist will propose, design, execute/supervise, and communicate the results of experiments to evaluate compounds using highly specialized knowledge of state-of-the-art equipment and methodologies. UICentre is seeking up to 2 FTEs for this position.
Duties:
- Work within interdisciplinary research teams to design and synthesize drug leads/candidates in support of hit-to-lead and lead -to-candidate objectives. Specifically, will plan and execute multi-step syntheses to generate key target molecules, followed by their purification and chemical characterization.
- Optimize the structures of promising chemical entities to improve their pharmacophores, binding affinities, pharmacokinetics or stability, applying the appropriate computational tools. For compounds entering preclinical animal studies, assist with bulk scale up and formulation decisions.
- Utilize, as appropriate, de novo structure-based design using in silico, computational techniques.
- Attend UICentre meetings and assist with scientific project management as needed. Contribute to team discussions and decisions regarding new concepts for hit-to-lead optimization, structure-activity relationships, ADMET properties and other.
- Organize data for presentations and publications, configure slide decks and present research reports to UICentre team members and other research groups.
- Plan, assign and review the work of research staff and trainees to ensure that objectives and project milestones are met. Hire, train, develop and manage researchers to ensure that a qualified staff exists to meet team objectives.
- Participate in efforts to obtain extramural research funding at the level of Co-Investigator.
Qualifications:
- Ph.D. degree in organic or medicinal chemistry or closely related field and a minimum of 3 years of postdoctoral research experience.
- Expert knowledge of organic reaction mechanisms and modern synthetic methodologies to include microwave synthesis, click chemistry, and carbohydrate and peptidomimetic chemistries.
- Extensive hands-on experience with mass spectrometry, UV, IR and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and HPLC techniques.
- Broad familiarity with various facets of medicinal chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, natural products chemistry, enzymology, xenobiotic metabolism, chemical biology, structural biology and computational methods.
- Must possess excellent technical and troubleshooting abilities to ensure critical laboratory equipment performance and assay integrity and the ability to adhere to strict protocols in accordance with standard operating protocols.
- Must exhibit competence with various chemical and molecular modeling software as well as general biomedical literature and reference sources.
- Must be able to communicate and participate effectively in team settings.
For full consideration, interested candidates should submit a cover letter, CV, and contact information of three references by February 26, 2021 to:
https://jobs.uic.edu/job-board/job-details?jobID=141139
The University of Illinois conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of contingent offer employments. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Report Act. The University of Illinois at Chicago is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
The University of Illinois System requires candidates selected for hire to disclose any documented finding of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment and to authorize inquiries to current and former employers regarding findings of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment. For more information, visit https://www.hr.uillinois.edu/cms/One.aspx?portalId=4292&pageId=1411899
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Postdoctoral Research Associate – Bioassay Development, High Throughput Screening and Automation for Small Molecule Drug Discovery
Reports to: Director of UICentre
Supervision (May supervise any or all of the following): Sr. Research/Research Specialist, Graduate Research Associate, and Laboratory Technicians/Assistants/Aides.
Job Summary
This position works with the UICentre leadership and project teams to develop, execute and effectively communicate results of molecular, biochemical and cellular assays in support of drug discovery and development. The candidate will support the bioassay and HTS, hit-lead and lead optimization objectives of UICentre using highly specialized knowledge of state-of-the-art equipment and methodologies.
Job Responsibilities (Essential Duties)
- Work within interdisciplinary research teams to design, develop and perform biochemical and cell- based assays in support of hit-to-lead or lead-to-candidate objectives for small molecule drug discovery teams
- Design and perform automation protocols to support high throughput screening for small molecule drug discovery efforts
- Help manage small molecule libraries to support HTS
- Work with cross functional teams to build appropriate strategies for translational science efforts
- Effectively communicate bioassay approaches and options for discovery efforts to cross functional teams
- Analyze bioassay data and manage transfer and storage of the data in database
- Attend UICentre meetings and assist UICentre Director with scientific project management as needed. Contribute to team discussions and decisions regarding new concepts for hit-to-lead optimization, and other
- Organize data for presentations and publications, configure slide sets and present research reports to the UICentre members or other research groups
- Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned
Job Knowledge & Skills, Education, Experience
- D. Degree in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry or related science
- Experience with translational science approaches, small molecule drug discovery or high throughput screening
- Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with enzyme- and cell-based assays
- Experience with common analytical formats for high throughput screening such as FP, TR-FRET, ELISA, reporter assays and AlphaLISA
- Knowledge and understanding of statistical validation process for screening assay development
Interested applicants who meet all the criteria above should send a PDF file which includes a cover letter stating career goals, CV, and contact information (including email addresses and phone numbers) for three references to
The University of Illinois conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of contingent offer employments. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Report Act. The University of Illinois at Chicago is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
The University of Illinois System requires candidates selected for hire to disclose any documented finding of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment and to authorize inquiries to current and former employers regarding findings of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment. For more information, visit https://www.hr.uillinois.edu/cms/One.aspx?portalId=4292&pageId=1411899
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Research Scientist – Bioassay R&D
Job Summary
This position works with the UICentre leadership and project teams to develop, execute and effectively communicate results of molecular, biochemical and cellular assays in support of drug discovery and development. The candidate will support the bioassay and HTS, hit-lead and lead optimization objectives of UICentre using highly specialized knowledge of state-of-the-art equipment and methodologies.
Job Responsibilities
- Work within interdisciplinary research teams to design, develop and perform biochemical and cell- based assays in support of hit-to-lead or lead-to-candidate objectives for small molecule drug discovery teams
- Design and perform automation protocols to support high and medium throughput screening for small molecule drug discovery efforts
- Help manage small molecule libraries to support HTS
- Work with cross functional teams to build appropriate strategies for translational science efforts
- Effectively communicate bioassay approaches and options for discovery efforts to cross functional teams
- Analyze bioassay data and manage transfer and storage of the data in database
- Attend UICentre meetings and assist UICentre Director with scientific project management as needed. Contribute to team discussions and decisions regarding new concepts for hit-to-lead optimization, and other
- Organize data for presentations and publications, configure slide sets and present research reports to the UICentre members or other research groups
- Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned
Job Knowledge and Skills, Education, Experience
- D. Degree or Masters with 2-4 years’ experience in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry or related science
- Experience with translational science approaches, small molecule drug discovery or high throughput screening
- Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with enzyme- and cell-based assays
- Experience with common analytical formats for high throughput screening such as FP, TR-FRET, ELISA, reporter assays and AlphaLISA
- Knowledge and understanding of statistical validation process for screening assay development