Senior Scientist - Computational Chemistry

Background Sygnature Discovery is a world-leading integrated drug discovery Contract Research Organisation based in the UK and Canada with its headquarters in Nottingham and additional facilities in Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Glasgow, Montreal and Quebec City. Its staff of over 1,000, which includes 900 scientists, partners with global pharma, biotech and NFP organisations.

Since 2004, Sygnature Discovery has delivered over 40 novel pre-clinical and 22 clinical compounds, with its scientists named on over 170 patents. Therapeutic areas of expertise include oncology, inflammation and immunology, neuroscience, metabolic diseases, infectious diseases, fibrotic diseases and more. To find out more, please visit www.sygnaturediscovery.com.

About the role

As part of Sygnature Discovery’s success and continued expansion, we are looking for innovative and enthusiastic computational chemists to join the organisation at either our Nottingham or Alderley Park locations.   Whether you’ve recently completed your PhD or have several years’ experience under your belt, we’d love to hear from you. Our success has been fuelled by the recruitment of the highest calibre of scientists, and we’re always on the lookout for the best talent to drive our continued growth.

The Opportunity:

• Work on integrated drug discovery projects with some of the most high profile global biotech and pharma companies.
• Chance to train and develop expertise using the latest AI/ML software.
• Learn about and apply new and emerging free energy methods on projects datasets.
• Be involved with a range of the new modalities such as protacs, molecular glues, macrocycles and other beyond rule of 5 compounds.
• Develop drug discovery knowledge by formal training and project experience.
• Be part of an expanding group at the forefront of applying new software and techniques to drug discovery projects.

Key Requirements:

• You will have a PhD in computational chemistry or a related discipline.
• You will have worked on structure-based design projects and be familiar with this approach to optimise ligand binding.
• Experience of working on fragment-based design projects would also be an advantage.
• You will have experience of ligand-based design including development of ML or QSAR models. This would include core/fragment replacement work and focussed library design.
• Familiarity with SAR analysis of project data sets and calculation of ADME/Tox relevant properties.
• You will have carried our virtual screening, either using protein x-ray structures or a ligand-based method.
• Protein sequence analysis and homology modelling - experience of multiple sequence alignment and homology modelling across numerous protein classes, including GPCRs, would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with data pipelining tools and an ability to script in python.
• A drug discovery background gained within a pharmaceutical company or a CRO is desirable.