Senior Director and Head - Cell Biology, Genome Biology & Functional Genomics

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Job description

About AbbVie
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women's health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at . on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and LinkedIn .

Senior Director and Head - Cell Biology, Genome Biology & Functional Genomics

AbbVie - Genomics Research Center

The Genomics Research Center (GRC) is a center of excellence for genetics and genomics that supports the R&D pipeline from Discovery through Development. The GRC goal is to develop world class genetics and genomics research focused on finding the right targets and helping AbbVie scientists better understand not only human disease biology but also the behavior and response to our drugs in clinical trials across all therapeutic areas. AbbVie has thus committed to obtaining a range of phenotypic and Omics data on more than 1 million participants in addition to the vast repertoire of data from our clinical trials.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Director , based in Lake County, Illinois. As Senior Director and Head of Cell Biology, Genome Biology and Functional Genomics, you will be responsible for building strategies and solutions to functionalize variants in disease relevant cellular models that are critical to understanding disease processes, thereby identifying potential targets for new therapies across all therapeutic areas and leading three departments within the GRC. You will be on the Executive Leadership Team of the GRC and play a critical role in defining and executing the GRC strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a series of teams positioned to conduct validation studies, based on results from genetic and genomic studies that leverage cellular models, in vitro tissue systems and animal models.
• Develop and execute strategies to rapidly functionalize variants implicated in diseases across therapeutic areas from population and clinical trial cohorts.
• Cultivate a program to accelerate functional characterization of potential or existing targets utilizing iPSCs and other 3D cell models.
• Incorporate novel technologies into the strategic plan to assess biological pathways and gene sets that mechanistically link the gene targets to disease(s).
• Oversee the utilization of pooled and array based CRISPR technologies and libraries and implementation of methodologies for whole genome sequencing to variant modification.
• Represent the GRC on various discovery teams involved in a range of drug-discovery pipeline activities seeking to understand the disease processes.
• Participate in the leadership of the GRC to define and ensure effective execution of the GRC strategy.
• Collaborate with scientists across the GRC and Discovery therapeutic areas to identify and characterize novel targets for therapy.
• Be the subject matter expert to interpret and incorporate genetic findings into new targets or for validation of existing targets

Qualifications

Core requirements:

• PhD or MD/PhD with at least 10 years' industry experience or 15 years overall post-PhD experience.
• Cell biologist with deep genomics knowledge.
• Working knowledge or direct experience with deploying iPSCs for drug discovery.
• Demonstrated ability to design and lead genetic and genomic studies delivering novel findings and medically relevant gene discoveries leveraging cell-based assays.
• Strong collaboration skills and proven ability to drive goals in a highly matrixed, collaborative environment.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience leading and managing scientific teams.

Additional desired skills include:

• Prior industry experience.
• Experience with multidisciplinary teams on both basic research and clinical questions
• Proven experience translating genomic data into clinically relevant results.
• Experience in Immunology, Neuroscience and/or Oncology would be a plus.
• Experience with large-scale research projects involving next-generation sequencing data in conjunction with results from informatics and wide array of molecular biology strategies.

Significant Work Activities
N/A
Travel
Yes, 15 % of the Time
Job Type
Experienced
Schedule
Full-time
Job Level Code
D
Equal Employment Opportunity
At AbbVie, we value bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds to develop new and innovative solutions for patients. As an equal opportunity employer we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.