Biologics Engineering Summer Intern
AstraZeneca

We are seeking 10 undergraduate junior, masters, and/or PhD level students majoring in in BioEngineering, Biology, BioChemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, or a related field for a 12-Week Student Intern role in Gaithersburg, MD for a May 19th - August 8th contract period.

This posting has 10 openings for the following projects:

1. Assay, Profiling and Pharmacology - Developing novel triaging reagents for ADC functional screening.

• Maintain cancer cell lines
• Design and conduct cytotoxicity assays
• Perform data analysis

2. Cell Therapeutics and Engineering - Allogeneic regulatory T cells.

• Maintenance and culture of immune cells (T cells).
• Multi-color flow cytometric characterization of immune cells.
• Apply cell engineering approaches to improve the potency of T cell therapies.

3. Cell Therapeutics and Engineering - Targeting Pro-tumorigenic Cytokines as an Armoring Strategy for T Cell Therapy.

• Developing an armoring strategy for T cell therapy to modulate pro-tumorigenic cytokines.
• Cloning DNA constructs for synthetic receptors.
  
• Producing lentivirus and expressing synthetic receptors in primary T cells.
  
• Performing ELISA/co-culture assays.
  

4. Cell Therapeutics and Engineering - Synthetic cellular circuits for MHC class II-restricted T cell epitope discovery.

• Perform Mammalian cell culture and molecular biology experiments.

5. Cell Therapeutics and Engineering - CRISPR-based high throughput arrayed CAR screening for allogenic CAR-T cell therapy.

Project A:

• Development of allogenic CAR-T cells by CRISPR genome editing with nanoparticle.

Project B:

• Screening optimal CAR designs by CAR-T functional assays in 96 well format.

6. Core TA - ADC - Modelling and Simulation of Biologics: Antibody and Peptide conjugates design

• Molecular dynamics simulations to explore the detailed interactions between the antibody, linker, and payload at the molecular level.
• Linker design and optimization using deep learning and artificial intelligence techniques.

7.Core TA - nnAA technologies - Improving efficacy and yields of nnAA expressions.

• Evaluate a set of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (aaRS) for efficiency of incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (nnAA) using a mammalian expression system.

8. Protein Analytics and Developability - Expression, Purification, and Characterization of tag-less VHHs

• Project will focus on producing and characterizing tag-less VHH.
• Perform transfection and purification.
• Developability assay characterization of tag-less VHH

9. Protein Engineering & Novel Modalities - Technologies for rapidly engineering multispecific antibody therapeutics

• Generate 'wet-lab' experimental data to inform the design and production of multispecific antibodies.
• Overall this work will improve our predictive capabilities in the design process of multispecific antibodies to improve drug properties (chain pairing, purification properties, etc.).

10. Protein Sciences - Critical Reagents - Epitope Fingerprinting guided antibody mutagenesis project:

• Antibody engineering with insights drawn from epitope mapping, utilizing Hight Throughput Flow Cytometry and site-directed mutagenesis.
• Perform cloning, transfection, purification, and flow cytometry assays.

Required duties for all internship projects in this posting:

• Work on a short-term research project exploring capability of new technologies.
• Design and perform experiments.
• Analyze data with proper statistical software (data analysis skills).
• Additional responsibilities will include collaborating with a cross functional team and presenting in team meetings.

Requirements:

• Undergraduate junior, masters, or PhD level students majoring in BioEngineering, Biology, BioChemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, or a related field.
• Wet lab skills such as cell culture, pipetting, cloning, protein production and purification, antibody characterization, transfection, viral transduction, CRISPR systems, Flow Cytometry are preferred.
• Enthusiasm for collaboration, scientific communication, cross-functional projects, public speaking, and presentation design.
• US Work Authorization is required at time of application.
• This role will not be providing OPT support.
• Ability to report onsite to Gaithersburg, MD five days a week. This role will not provide relocation assistance.
• Minimum grade point average of 3.0

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.

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