Senior Scientist in Innate Immune Biology

Make your mark for patients

At UCB everything we do starts with a simple question: “How will this make a difference to the lives of people living with severe diseases?” We do that by connecting our ground-breaking science with patients and their families around the world living with the physical and social burdens of autoimmune and neurological disorders. Those connections offer new perspectives, drive innovation, and offer the hope of a new generation of therapies that will help improve lives on a global scale.

To strengthen our Neuroinflammation department, in thePrimary Innate Immune Biology team, we are looking for a talented individual to fill the position of Senior Scientist In Innate Immune Biology.The role is based in Braine l’Alleud, Belgium

Role Overview

This is an exciting and high visibility role for an experienced neuroimmunologist to join the primary innate immune biology team in the Department of Neuroinflammation. The ideal candidate will have an in-depth knowledge of microglia and peripheral immune involvement in neurodegenerative and/or autoimmune disease backed by publications. The candidate will work side-by-side with the team on target ID, validation, and driving the biology strategy from hit ID to candidate selection. He/she is expected to have a hands-on involvement in experimental work, coordinate/prioritize activities together with his/her team, act as the neuroinflammation biology representative to the various neuroinflammation pre-clinical projects, and drive target ID and validation initiatives together with internal and external collaborators. The candidate will work closely with other teams within the Department of Neuroinflammation and align with key stakeholders across UCB’s research sites to define experimental approaches, specific studies, and priorities. The candidate will also manage external collaborations with academic labs, CROs and biotech partners, and will represent the Neuroinflammation team by proposing new drug targets and providing updates on projects to UCB leadership/governance.

You willcontribute by:

Technical Competencies

• In-depth expertise handling, establishing/troubleshooting functional assays utilizing human or non-human primate blood and bone marrow-derived immune cells, including PBMCs, monocytes, monocyte-derived macrophages is a must.
• Expertise in gene editing, overexpression or knockdown technologies combined with high throughput/high content imaging approaches is a must.
• In-depth experience with immune phenotyping (flow/mass cytometry) and cell sorting technologies is a must.
• Experience with murine cell lines, bone marrow-derived macrophages and microglia as well as knowledge of rodent models of autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease is desirable.
• Experience with iPSC-derived systems including microglial and neuronal functional assays is desirable.

Professional and Personal Attributes

• Experience in pharma drug discovery setting
• Strong leadership, inter-personal, communication and presentation skills
• Strong ability to collaborate across the matrix organization and with external parties (academic labs, CROs, biotech partners)
• A can-do attitude and exceptional attention to detail, dynamic, independent, and innovative with a strong ability to prioritize
• Open-minded, agile, and flexible, to work in a fast-paced environment

Interested? For this position you’ll need the following education, experience and skills:

Ph.D. in Neuroimmunology or Immunology with a minimum of 3 years of experience in a pharma setting or 5 years of post-doctoral experience in academia paired with a strong publication record. Priority will be given to individuals with prior industry experience. Wecan offer you an informal and open working environment that does not lock scientists into structure and hierarchy. Freedom to take space to pursue your own ideas and make a difference. Opportunity to gain internal and external visibility through interactions with other UCB teams and with world-renown academic investigators. Opportunity to grow both as a drug hunter and leader through participation in project teams and our career/personal development programs.

RANDATUCB

Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!

About us
UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are around 8,500 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.

Why work for us?
At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected and has equitable opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.

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UCB and its subsidiaries encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace; we are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race/colour/religion/sex/national origin/veteran/disability/age/sexual orientation/gender identity.