Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Structural Chemistry and Chemical Biotechnology. The Merck Postdoctoral Research Fellow Program aims to be a best-in-industry program for industrial postdoctoral researchers, designed to provide you with an academic focus in a commercial environment. With the resources, reach, and expertise of a large pharmaceutical company, postdoctoral researchers will be positioned to excel in an institution committed to breakthrough innovation in research and discovery.
Location: Rahway, NJ, US
As a postdoctoral fellow in Structural Chemistry and Chemical Biotechnology you will work with a highly collaborative team of scientists to establish new tools and workflows to enable protein design and evolution at Merck. You will leverage large and iterative data sets generated from protein evolution campaigns to develop and implement bioinformatics, cheminformatics and structure-based methodologies to guide the design of novel proteins with improved properties. You will work with colleagues of various disciplines at MRL and experience multiple aspects of drug discovery and development. The position will be located at the Merck Rahway site in NJ.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
1- Validate current computational/informatics methods for protein design and evolution.
– Develop more sophisticated tools to enable faster and more accurate protein engineering endeavors.
– Conduct critical assessment of the methodologies using diverse datasets from different protein evolution campaigns.
– Implement best methods into workflows/protocols to be easily shared across Merck’s scientific network.
– Publication of research results in external scientific journals is expected and encouraged.
Qualifications
Education Minimum Requirement:
– PhD in chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, physics, bioengineering, chemical engineering or related field with 3 years or less of postdoctoral experience or have met all the requirements for a PhD by May 2016.
Required Experience and Skills:
– Research experience in computational chemistry, computational biology, bioinformatics or cheminformatics.
– History of publications in peer-reviewed journals.
– Strong communication skills, along with the ability to work well in multidisciplinary teams.
Preferred Experience and Skills:
– Experience in computational enzyme design or protein evolution.
– Strong bioinformatics and/or cheminformatics capabilities.
– Knowledge of structure based drug design, QSAR, protein SAR, QM/MM, FEP or MD.
– Ability to work independently and develop innovative solutions.