Protein Engineer

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Job description

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe's growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms. Today, our foundry is developing over 40 different organisms to make different products across multiple industries.Proteins are the primary doers in biological systems; essential to most all projects at Ginkgo are the enzymes, binding proteins, receptors, signal peptides, biosensors, antigens, antibodies, structural proteins (and more!) which carry out extraordinary functions at the molecular scale. The Ginkgo Protein Engineering team strives to optimize these proteins by developing and deploying state-of-the-art techniques in structure- and sequence-based protein design, as well as ultra-high-throughput experimental techniques to optimize function and stability. As a Protein Engineer, you will have the opportunity to apply your expertise to highly diverse applications and develop new platforms for tomorrow's approaches. We are seeking someone who is excited about the promise of synthetic biology, and who is as enthusiastic about proteins as we are!ResponsibilitiesDesign protein engineering libraries by application of rational protein engineering, directed evolution, synthetic metagenomics, and other approaches with the goal of altering properties such as catalytic activity, binding affinities, expression, solubility, substrate specificity, product profile, etc.Analyze datasets to discover structure/sequence-function-relationships and leverage learnings to design iterative protein engineering librariesCollaborate with team members to develop and implement computational pipelines for protein engineering using structural and/or sequence-based approachesActively engage in interdisciplinary research and collaboration between scientists, who may speak somewhat different scientific languages, but all share a common passion for synthetic biologyDesired Experience and CapabilitiesPhD or equivalent in molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, chemical engineering, biophysics, physics, computer science, computational biology, quantitative biology, or related fieldHands on experience designing a mutational library and/or applying directed evolution or other experimental protein engineering pipelinesDemonstrated experience using PyMOL, Chimera, or comparable software to intuit protein structures and ability to design hypothesis driven point-mutations by eyeFamiliarity with at least one programming language (Python is preferred); openness to learning basic Python if needed (support will be provided)Exposure to at least one type of molecular modeling software such as Rosetta, Molecular Operating Environment (MOE), Schrodinger, a plusFamiliarity with applying machine learning to protein engineering, a plusEnthusiasm to learn new techniques and strong curiosity of areas of biology previously unknown to youTo learn more about Ginkgo, check out some recent press:What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: 'If we try, we can win' (CNBC)Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)We also feel that it's important to point out the obvious here there's a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.We're developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can and will impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it's something we'll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it's critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.Apply for this job