Assay Engineer

We are looking for an Assay Engineer to help us build a DNA nanotechnology-enabled next-generation proteomics platform. 

About us

nplex was founded with the purpose of making biology easier to understand. To do this, we are untangling some of the most difficult problems in protein profiling and measurement.

Our team is combining DNA nanotechnology, high-dimensional flow cytometry, laboratory automation, and machine learning to develop the world’s highest throughput proteomic platform: the nELISA. Today, every nELISA ‘unit cell’ is zipping at 300,000 proteins per day. We’re aiming to scale to 1M proteins per instrument.day in the next year. In short, we are trying to do for proteomics what Illumina did for DNA sequencing. 

We are building a diverse team of engineers, scientists, and world-changers. We like to break down difficult problems using a first principles approach, leveraging the latest breakthroughs from across the scientific and technological spectrum to drive our mission forward. 

About the Role

Core to nplex’s approach is to engineer smarter and massively scalable assays. Assay engineering is inherently multi-disciplinary: working on the nELISA is tightly tied to areas from surface chemistry and molecular biology, to DNA nanoengineering and single molecule fluorescence modeling, to assay design and lab automation. As an Assay Engineer, you’ll bring your experience and ingenuity to the table on a daily basis to solve our hardest problems and make long term technical impacts for the nELISA platform.

We are looking for talented and experienced Assay Engineers that can lead our research and development efforts as we scale our next-generation proteomic platform. Together with our team of technologists and scientists, you will be expected to plan and execute improvements to the nELISA platform with well-thought-out experimental plans. Each advance to the core platform will be compounded as we scale up and onboard 1000’s of optimized nELISA assays to our proteomic platform. You will design short-term and long-term R&D roadmaps, and communicate advances to our assay developers for further development and productization. In short - you will play a key role to spearhead our efforts to "scale n" by making core improvements to the nELISA.

If you join you will get to:

● Employ biochemistry and molecular methods such as: spectroscopy, protein purification, antibody conjugation, DNA modification, and fluorescent labelling. You would get to design new nano-scale DNA constructs, develop improved nELISA assay reagents, and test all functional aspects of the nELISA system in suitable R&D tests.

● Leverage your technical expertise to develop new nELISA assay modalities and bring them to the proof-of-concept (POC) stage using a range of biological sample controls.

● Design large scale assay optimization campaigns that efficiently probe bioassay parameter space and guide further R&D exploration.

● Collaborate with your R&D, scientific and engineering teammates to identify new technical solutions, and communicate analytical results to support decision-making company-wide.

● Train, work with and mentor more junior staff to increase R&D bandwidth and generate POCs sooner.

● Play a key role in building a next-generation proteomics technology from the ground up!

We’re looking for someone who has:

● 5+ years of wet lab experience building new bioanalytical technologies from the ground up.

● PhD degree in bioengineering (or a related field). 

● Highly proficient in proteomic tools and their associated methods, in particular you would be an expert on multiple of: immunoassays, nucleic acid amplification, DNA nanoarchitecture and design, separation-based techniques for biological samples and compounds, biophysics / fluorescence, and signal processing.

● Deep knowledge of, and experience with, surface chemistry, DNA-based circuits, and bead-based immunoassays.

● Excellent communication skills (written, verbal) and an independent problem solver.

● Experience leading wet-lab R&D projects in a fast-paced startup environment.

Nice to haves:

● Experience as an early employee at a scaling startup.

● Software development and/or software engineering experience.

● Data science experience, particularly with analyzing bioanalytical assay data.

● Experience in interacting with Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and/or quality control (QC) and Quality Management Systems (QMS).

Please apply if you:

● Connect deeply with our mission, ambition and sense of duty. We have a mission that isn’t marketing flash: we developed our technology to better measure biology and discover biomarkers for early detection of diseases. We firmly believe we will be successful in literally eradicating certain diseases by enabling them to be diagnosed earlier. We also believe that our hard work to bring this technology to fruition is our duty not only as scientists and engineers, but also as children and parents.

● Are up for a challenge and want to grow: We are a team of problem-solvers, and we continually put ourselves to the test and go into the unknown. We have a growth mindset, and we rely on each other to give critical and candid feedback to ensure that we can reach our full potential.

● Love cutting-edge biotechnology. The nELISA is a new tool that leverages DNA nanotechnology to generate proteomic data more efficiently than ever before. You get to design and build the system that will run the technology going forward.

● Like to work and communicate within a diverse cross-functional team. You would get to interface with teammates from the Engineering, Ops, and Product teams on a daily basis.