Position:
The Delivery Sciences Lead is a key member of the Moonwalk R&D team, driving the company’s therapeutic payload delivery efforts. In this hands-on role, you will oversee and lead a core component of Moonwalk’s Platform overseeing all aspects of delivery science research and development. You will be responsible for driving the design, optimization, and manufacturing of delivery systems for Moonwalk’s therapeutic pipeline working closely with our Payload and Program teams to enable the next frontier of epigenetic medicines.
Responsibilities:
Moonwalk Biosciences is recruiting an experienced scientist to advance delivery science at Moonwalk. As a leader on the R&D team, you will:
- Design and develop lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems for targeted delivery of therapeutic payloads.
- Oversee the optimization of delivery systems for potency, specificity, and manufacturability.
- Lead and collaborate on in vitro and in vivo studies to evaluate the efficacy and safety of delivery systems.
- Oversee the selection, qualification, and management of CROs/CDMOs for development and manufacturing activities.
- Support the various Program teams by enabling delivery technologies for IND-supporting animal studies, laying the groundwork for future clinical trials.
- Stay current on the latest advancements in delivery technologies and identify new opportunities for platform development.
- Interface with external advisors and experts to integrate best-in-class insights into Moonwalk’s platform
- Manage and interpret scientific data, generating reports and presentations for internal and external stakeholders.
- Contribute to the invention, from conception through validation, of core intellectual property, and authorship of white papers and other external publications.
Required Qualifications:
- PhD in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, or a related field.
- Minimum of 5+ years of experience in delivery science research in the biopharmaceutical industry leading oligonucleotide delivery, formulation, and scale up of LNP-based technologies. Experience with viral vector delivery (e.g. AAV) is a plus.
- Demonstrated expertise in designing, optimizing, and characterizing LNP delivery systems.
- Strong experience in in vitro and in vivo studies for evaluating delivery system efficacy and safety.
- Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to effectively manage and motivate a team.
- Proven track record of scientific achievement and publication in peer-reviewed journals.
- Passion for innovation and a strong desire to translate research into impactful therapies.
- Experience in a startup environment is a plus.
Moonwalk Biosciences is pioneering a new class of precision epigenetic medicines. Its novel platform technology provides a complete view of the epigenome in health and disease, with the most advanced AI prediction of epigenetic targets, and the broadest set of epigenetic engineering tools. Moonwalk was Co-founded by Alex Aravanis, M.D., Ph.D., former CTO of Illumina, world-renowned scientist Feng Zhang, Ph.D. of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and a distinguished set of industry leaders and company builders. It has raised $57 million led by Alpha Wave Ventures, and joined by other leading life sciences investors ARCH Venture Partners, Future Ventures, GV, Khosla Ventures and YK Bioventures.