Director/ Group Leader Spatial & Single Cell Lab (Clinical Unit Cambridge)

Site Name: UK - Cambridgeshire - Addenbrookes Posted Date: Nov 5 2024 GSK's success absolutely depends on our people.
While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it's also about making GSK a place where people can thrive.
We want GSK to be a place where people feel inspired, encouraged and challenged to be the best they can be.
A place where they can be themselves - feeling welcome, valued and included.
Where they can keep growing and look after their wellbeing.
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We have an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated, agile, and experienced scientific director with subject matter level and prior lab expertise in spatial and single cell technologies to join the Biomarker and Bioanalytical Platform (BBP) department in Precision Medicine (PMed) based at Clinical Unit Cambridge (CUC) in Cambridge UK.
BBP group is responsible for applying advanced technology in the development and use of biomarker assays in clinical studies.
This role will provide YOU the opportunity to build and lead a group of talented scientists to support translational research teams through generation of foundational data sets as well as disease biomarkers development and validation in respiratory, immunology, or emerging specialities.
You will work closely across lines in GSK matrix partners, and external academics and institutes.
The individual will spearhead initiatives to increase portfolio success through the application of cutting-edge spatial and single cell techniques.
Key Responsibilities Your responsibilities will include the following: Spatial and Single Cell Omics Expert: Serve as a technical expert in applied spatial-omics and single cell-omics to support translational and clinical studies, the delivery of robust, high quality data packages.
Evaluate and oversee application of advanced spatial-omics and genomics technologies, including Xenium, Visium/Visium HD, single cell/nuclei sequencing to inform translational initiatives for early-stage clinical trials.
This includes generation of data to understand disease heterogeneity, drug's mechanism of action, and patient responses to treatment at the molecular level.
Histotechnology: Oversee routine histology workflows of clinical trial samples, including biopsy processing, embedding, microtomy, histochemical staining and imaging.
Ensure samples are processed to meet high sample QC expectations.
Project Oversight and Lab Compliance: Oversee all aspects of the teams' projects.
Act as a subject-matter expert to advise translational and clinical teams on assay strategy and design.
Provide support to direct reports as needed for reagent selection/optimization, sample preparation, assay development, troubleshooting, sample acquisition, data processing, and all aspects of QC.
Ensure all work follows the appropriate SOPs and is conducted in compliance with GCP regulations.
Cross-functional Collaboration : Work closely with multidisciplinary teams including Translational Research, Translational Sciences, Clinical Biomarkers, Precision Medicine, HBSM, and Pathology.
Provide scientific expertise and guidance to support decision-making and project progression.
Work with data management, programming, and bioinformatics scientists to expedite the transfer of high-dimensional data to key stakeholders.
Communicate frequently with translational teams and adjust direct reports workloads and priorities as needed to meet required deadlines.
External Partnerships : Develop trusted connections in the scientific community (internally and externally to GSK).
Support strategic collaborations with academic institutions, and other external partners.
Act as subject matter expert for the transfer of assays to CROs.
Basic Qualifications MS or PhD with extensive years of post-graduate experience in a relevant scientific discipline ( e.g., immunology, molecular or cellular biology, cancer biology, neurobiology, genomics, biomedical science, experimental pathology or related disciplines).
Experience in managing projects and leading a team.
Able to show definitive decision making to manage workloads, multiple projects and accurately estimate timelines to meet deadlines.
Strong knowledge on Human Tissue Act and experience in histotechnology, including specimen processing and routine histology.
Strong knowledge and experience in working with spatial-omic platforms Visium and Xenium including the design, implementation and interpretation of spatial-omics experiments and data.
Broad experience in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting single cell RNA-Seq applications (e.g.,10x Genomics, BD Rhapsody, Parse), or similar high content techniques.
Scientific understanding of other histotechnology and genomics platforms to lead cross-platform projects (e.g., Digital Pathology, Spatial Proteomics, CITE-Seq, AB-Seq, TCR/BCR Seq, etc.)
Team player with a proactive attitude, familiar with working in a matrixed environment.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex scientific concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences in a balanced, clear and precise manner.
Ability to maintain a disciplined approach, with a strong attention to detail with a focus on quality, compliance, scientific rigor, and operational excellence.
Willingness to develop and train others as required Preferred Qualifications Experience supervising the execution of experimental protocols in a GCP-compliant laboratory setting.
A good understanding of the drug development process from previous experience working in a biopharmaceutical environment.
Experienced in workflows to analyze high-plex biological data sets.
Experience generating high quality data to support clinical studies by various spatial and single cell platforms.
#LI-GSK* Why GSK?
Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.
GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose - to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together - so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns - as an organisation where people can thrive.
We prevent and treat disease with vaccines, specialty and general medicines.
We focus on the science of the immune system and the use of new platform and data technologies, investing in four core therapeutic areas (infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/ immunology and oncology).
Our success absolutely depends on our people.
While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it's also about making GSK a place where people can thrive.
We want GSK to be a place where people feel inspired, encouraged and challenged to be the best they can be.
A place where they can be themselves - feeling welcome, valued, and included.
Where they can keep growing and look after their wellbeing.
So, if you share our ambition, join us at this exciting moment in our journey to get Ahead Together.
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