Senior Scientist - Lead Optimisation Unit

CHUGAI PHARMABODY RESEARCH PTE. LTD.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Chugai Pharmabody Research Pte. Ltd. in Singapore seeks a Senior Scientist in Lead Optimisation to advance antibody drug candidates. You will drive engineering strategies across humanization, affinity tuning, and developability assessments, collaborating with biology, pharmacology, and manufacturing teams to translate discovery into development. A PhD and strong cross-functional skills are essential.

Qualifications

• PhD in Biomedical Science, Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, Biotechnology, Information Science, or related discipline.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in molecular biology, cell biology, protein chemistry, or protein engineering.
• Strong expertise in protein/antibody engineering, structural biology, or computational approaches.

Responsibilities

• Lead humanization, affinity optimization, and physicochemical property tuning to enhance PK, safety, and efficacy of antibodies.
• Design, construct, and evaluate antibody formats including bispecifics, fragments, ADCs, and fusion proteins.
• Pioneer new antibody technologies and platforms to expand the therapeutic pipeline.

Skills

Protein engineering

Antibody engineering

Molecular biology

Cell biology

Protein chemistry

Structural biology

Machine learning

Data analysis

Scientific writing

Communication

Education

PhD in Biomedical Science or related field

Job description

Chugai Pharmabody Research Pte. Ltd. ("CPR") was established in Singapore as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Chugai), a member of Roche group, in January 2012 and started operations on July 2, 2012. Located at Geneo in Singapore , it aims to generate new antibody drugs based on Chugai's proprietary antibody engineering technologies, such as recycling antibody®, sweeping antibody®, bispecific antibody, various Fc engineered antibodies, and other new antibody engineering technologies that are under development.

Position - Senior Scientist in Lead Optimisation Unit

Overview

CPR is seeking a motivated Senior Scientist with demonstrated expertise in protein engineering and a strong passion for medical science. This position offers the opportunity to contribute to the discovery and development of innovative drugs designed to address unmet medical needs.

Key responsibilities

• Optimize Lead Candidates: Drive humanization, affinity optimization, and the optimization of physicochemical properties to significantly improve the pharmacokinetics (PK), safety and efficacy of therapeutic antibodies.
• Engineer Antibody Formats: Design, construct, and evaluate diverse antibody formats including bispecifics antibodies, antibody fragments, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and fusion proteins, to achieve optimal structural stability, developability, and precise therapeutic functions.
• Pioneer New Antibody Technologies: Lead the research and development of next-generation antibody platforms, novel discovery methodologies, and proprietary engineering technologies to expand the therapeutic pipeline and address complex disease targets.
• Drive Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with diverse scientific departments such as target biology, pharmacology, and manufacturing to advance engineered therapeutics from discovery through development.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Biomedical Science, Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, Biotechnology, Information Science, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in areas such as molecular biology, cell biology, protein chemistry, or protein engineering, evidenced by research projects, presentations, patents, and/or peer-reviewed publications.
• Demonstrated strong expertise in at least one of the following areas:
  • Protein and/or antibody engineering, including rational or random mutagenesis approaches.
  • Structural and molecular biology for protein structure and function investigation.
  • Structural modelling and/or machine learning.
  • Protein biochemistry, including protein expression, purification, and characterisation.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage and interpret large datasets.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional and multidisciplinary teams.
• Good command of spoken and written English.
• Self-motivated team player with the capability of managing multiple priorities in a dynamic research environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior work experience in antibody drug discovery.
• Knowledge of high-throughput systems, automation, and/or general scripting languages.
• Knowledge of cell biology, biophysics or immunology.

For more information regarding our Company, you may refer to our website at: http://chugai-pharmabody.com/

We regret that only short-listed candidates will be notified