Research Scientist - RDIT Modelling

Position Purpose

The role holder is responsible for collaboration & contribution to Biotechnology (enzyme engineering and discovery, Metagenomics analysis), Biologicals (peptide design, immunogenicity prediction, etc.) using state-of-the-art bioinformatics and molecular modelling approaches for an agrochemical/pharma industry. The role requires deep understanding of chemical, biological, scientific and statistical knowledge with past experience of its application. The role would also give exposure to crop protection discovery, data analytics and latest use cases in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

General

• Actively imbibing the values and philosophy of the organization and the department.
• Efficient contribution to the overall success of RDIT by driving innovation and team performance according to objectives and targets set.
• Ensuring the security of intellectual property for PI R&D (patent applications, ensuring freedom-to-operate).
• Continuously updating scientific and domain knowledge with respect to recent literature on computational methodologies, new bioinformatics tools and databases in enzyme engineering & discovery, as well as tools for digitalization and data analytics.
• Support the Team Leader with special focus on target setting and constantly seek functional feedback.
• Prepare and present strategic presentations in order to convey key findings, computational results and ideas to the project teams and management.

Operational

• Work closely with research project stakeholder to achieve and exceed targets within specified timeframe.
• Candidate will play an essential role in Computational enzyme engineering, in silico enzyme discovery, enzyme evolution analysis, Genomics, transcriptomic analysis (RNAseq/micro array), Protein modelling and simulations using advanced sampling techniques, immunogenicity prediction, peptide design and property prediction by state-of-the-art computational tools like Rosetta, Phyre2, Genious Prime, Sequence Read Aligner, BLAST, ClustalW, Bioconductor, Schrodinger, AMBER/GROMACS, etc.
• Use programming and scripting skills to automate the process, and enhance the effectiveness and productivity. Eg. R, Perl, Bash, Python, JAVA, mySQL
• Learn new tools and technologies constantly to be updated with industry developments. Ideate, test and validate in order to launch new programs and initiatives.
• Continuously keep oneself updated with competition, industry and domain analysis and share important developments with the key stakeholders.
• Follow all standard operating procedures as defined from time to time, share regular reports and comply to all information/data integrity and security policies.
• Continuous documentation and reporting of all research results obtained within the area of responsibility.
• Update on the functional progress/issues of the project on a regular basis and actively seek functional support from Team Leader
• Constructive and active participation in all technical and functional meetings of the team.
• Foster an environment of knowledge sharing within the team
• Maintain healthy working relationships with the related teams and departments in PI R&D

Educational Qualification

• PhD in bioinformatics/computational biology or a related field with background in biology / chemistry / physics or informatics from a reputed University / Institute with excellent academic credentials.

Experience

• Research experience of > 3 years from relevant industries and/or high ranking academic institutes in handling and analysing scientific data in order to support enzyme engineering and biologicals
• Experience in working on commercial/open source bioinformatics and modelling tools like Rosetta, Phyre2, Genious Prime, Sequence Read Aligner, BLAST, ClustalW, Bioconductor, Schrodinger, AMBER/GROMACS
• Experience in working with databases like RCSB PDB, IEDB, EMBL, UNIPROT, GenBank
• Expert in scripting and programming languages like R, Perl, Bash, Python, JAVA, mySQL
• Well versed with working on cloud (AWS) and HPC servers on LINUX/UNIX environment.
• Must be able to communicate with key stakeholders on a high level of understanding of contents
• Experience in agro-chemical space would be an additional advantage.

shubhi.chandnani@piind.com