Scientist, In vitro iPSC culture and differentiation

Why Patients Need You

Pfizer's purpose is to deliver breakthroughs that change patients' lives. Research and Development is at the heart of fulfilling Pfizer's purpose as we work to translate advanced science and technologies into the therapies and vaccines that matter most. Whether you are in the discovery sciences, ensuring drug safety and efficacy or supporting clinical trials, you will apply cutting edge design and process development capabilities to accelerate and bring the best in class medicines to patients around the world.

As a Scientist, you will be at the center of our operations and you'll find that everything we do, every day, is in line with an unwavering commitment to quality. You will be part of a team that is addressing the critical task of rejuvenating our pipeline with innovative, differentiated First-In-Class/ Only-In-Class programs in the years to come. This will be addressed by generation of strong data packages from target hypotheses derived from academic outreach and initiatives. You will be an essential member of this team and creatively design and execute key experiments to address the basic and translational biology of novel drug targets, their molecular pathways, and their connection to human disease.

With your deep knowledge in the discipline, you will be an active team member who influences at the project team level. You will be using your scientific judgment to adapt standard methods and techniques by applying prior work experience and consulting others. Your ability to plan will help in preparing short-term work activities on projects. Your creativity in developing novel processes and new ideas will be used frequently. You will undertake mentoring activities to guide your team members.

It is your innovative scientific temperament that will help in making Pfizer ready to achieve new milestones and help patients across the globe.

What You Will Achieve

Pfizer's Rare Disease Research Unit (RDRU) is focused on developing therapies for rare inherited diseases, including rare cardiac diseases.

The successful candidate will be a member of the rare cardiac disease research group. The role's primary responsibility will be to contribute to the production and characterization of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to support our rare cardiology portfolio. The preferred candidate would have hands-on experience with the maintenance of pluripotent stem cells (iPS or ES) and their differentiation into relevant cell types including cardiomyocytes.

The candidate is expected to have excellent critical thinking, problem-solving, and presentation skills (written and oral) and will need to effectively communicate with internal partners.

How You Will Achieve It

• Contribute to the achievement of goals of the team and influence at the work group/project team level.
• Apply technical skills and functional knowledge to projects/ assignments within own work group/ project team independently and proactively.
• Perform laboratory experiments to help establish robust disease biology, biochemical and cell-based compound screening assays and carry out in vivo evaluation across a broad array of target classes for the project teams.
• Prepare and present experimental results to project teams.
• Comply with all safety training and good laboratory practices.
• Propagate and maintain iPSC cultures and iPSC-derived cell cultures for program advancement, with an immediate focus on cardiomyocytes
• Perform characterization and validation of iPSC cardiomyocytes using various approaches such as ELISA, qRT-PCR, FACS, Western blotting, and immunostaining
• Develop Standard Operating Procedures for the maintenance, differentiation, and banking of different patient-derived iPSCs
• Perform experimental studies, conduct data analysis and interpretation, record results in an electronic lab notebook, and stay abreast of novel relevant findings from the literature
• Help to identify, evaluate, and implement novel methods or technologies that would enhance workflow efficiencies and/or improve the quality of cell reagent deliverables
• Be highly motivated, organized and show significant ability to work effectively and collaboratively in a team-oriented environment as a part of the Rare Disease biology group to advance our pipeline of candidate therapies.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• B.S. or M.S. in a relevant discipline
• At least 6 years of laboratory experience in academia or industry for B.S. and 4 years for M.S.
• Hands-on experience with undifferentiated iPSC culture, including expansion, banking, and quality control
• Experience with differentiation and characterization of iPSCs, with preference towards cardiomyocytes
• Molecular biology skills including mammalian cell DNA/RNA extraction and PCR/RT-PCR/qPCR
• Familiarity with cellular biology techniques including immunocytochemistry, high-content imaging, image analysis, western blot, cell-based assays
• Ability to execute, troubleshoot and analyze experiments and interpret results
• Precise documentation of procedures and results in compliance with Electronic Lab Notebook guidelines
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills
• Good oral and written communication skills
• Must be willing to work with cells of human origin

Nice-to-Have

• Experience analyzing cardiomyocyte function
• Experience with cell transfection and AAV transduction

PHYSICAL/MENTAL REQUIREMENTS

• Will require standard laboratory physical work

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Pfizer requires all U.S. new hires to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the first date of employment. As required by applicable law, Pfizer will consider requests for Reasonable Accommodations.

Sunshine Act

Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations. These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider's name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure. Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act. Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government. If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.

EEO & Employment Eligibility

Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status. Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA. Pfizer is an E-Verify employer.

Research and Development

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