Research Leader (Computational Biology), London

Isomorphic Labs is a new Alphabet company that is reimagining drug discovery through a computational- and AI-first approach.

We are on a mission to accelerate the speed, increase the efficacy and lower the cost of drug discovery. Youll be working at the cutting edge of the new era of digital biology to deliver a transformative social impact for the benefit of millions of people.

Come and be part of a multi-disciplinary team driving groundbreaking innovation and play a meaningful role in contributing towards us achieving our ambitious goals, while being a part of an inspiring, collaborative and entrepreneurial culture.

Your impact

This is an exciting opportunity for you to contribute to an ambitious Computational Biology research programme, working in partnership with leading Machine Learning (ML) researchers, Chemists and Biologists. Building on the successful models in place to predict protein structure (AlphaFold-3), there is an unique opportunity for a Research Leader to have a direct impact on drug discovery using innovative Computational Biology and ML approaches. This is a newly created role; driven by a passion for problem solving, you will need to use your previous experience and show initiative in order to fully carve out your contribution.

What you will do

• Use your deep technical experience and scientific knowledge to plan, lead, and deliver original research projects that impact critical problems in drug development.
• Use your broad expertise to undertake analysis of biomedical datasets, including genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, functional perturbation screens, imaging, knowledge graphs, PPI, clinical or other data types.
• Be empowered to develop detailed research directions within the scope of the Computational Biology strategy, and design these projects to make an impact on company goals.
• Function as a subject matter and technical expert in multi-disciplinary teams, sharing your knowledge and expertise generously with your colleagues.
• Influence Iso’s strategy, ensuring innovative insights are consistently brought to bear within drug development programmes.
• Contribute to the wider development of Iso’s ML computational platform, working with other engineers to architect, build, and operate the platform’s components in a cross-disciplinary working environment.
• Work with other members of the Computational Biology team and key stakeholders to deliver a unified team strategy.
• Provide documentation, guidance, and communication on computational biology to the wider organisation.
• Proactively identify complex problems and solve them in a creative and innovative way with minimal guidance.
• You may have formal line management and/or matrix management responsibilities, as well as responsibility for mentoring junior colleagues to enable the technical work of others.
• You may represent the company in external situations such as working with partners, within consortia, and with CROs as a project or collaboration lead.

Skills and qualificationsEssential:

• A PhD plus extensive experience in computational biology, potentially including in leadership roles
• Track record of delivery of outstanding research
• Expertise with detailed data quality control procedures and data visualisation
• Experience with experimental design, and data generation, quality control and statistical analysis
• Sophisticated understanding of computational biology methodologies as applied in biomedical research
• Deep understanding of the principles of molecular cell biology, genetics, or related biological disciplines
• Familiarity with data processing pipelines and analytical tools
• Ability to effectively communicate complex scientific concepts to a variety of audiences
• Programming skills in a language such as Python (ideally), or R
• Experience working in a Linux environment
• Demonstrate ongoing career progression / trajectory and a passion for learning and problem solving

Nice to have:

• Prior experience in the context of therapeutic or diagnostic development programmes
• Familiarity with a variety of assaying techniques, including NGS, cell-based assays, functional genomics, single-cell techniques, and image-based assays with expertise in their respective data analysis approaches
• Experience working with clinical data
• Expertise in developing computational biology methods for problems relevant to drug discovery
• Experience applying computational biology workflows on Google Cloud Platform
• Strong experience in developing software in Python
• Hands-on experience in applying ML (especially deep learning) models in the field of computational biology

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