Earli exists to make cancer a benign experience. Earli does that by turning cancers against themselves: genetically forcing them to reveal themselves early, and then kill themselves – precisely and clearly distinguishable from benign lesions at early stages. Based on original technology from Stanford’s renowned Gambhir lab, Earli designs genetic constructs that are injected intravenously that turn cancer cells against themselves. These programmable synthetic promoter-reporter sequences “flip on” like light switches only in dysregulated cancer cells and turn them into "factories." The cancer is forced to produce either an epitope “docking station” for imaging agents, or a cytokine for immune system activation against the tumor. Thus, Earli’s platform enables immediate diagnosis and treatment of early cancers, rather than long-term observation that can lead to deadly metastatic recurrence.
Earli's synthetic target expression platform has evolved over five years of deep bioengineering. The system can now detect broad ranges of patient mutations, distinguish between malignant and benign lesions, and offer independence from often elusive natural biomarkers.
Who You Are
- You share our same sense of dedication, scientific passion and entrepreneurial spirit
- You work well in a fast-paced and extremely focused startup environment
- You are not only smart, but clever and constantly think outside the box
- You are able to make logical decisions in an instant when there is little time to evaluate
- You are a natural communicator and relationship builder
- You stay calm under high pressure and stress
- You have the ability to multi-task in a serious way, with an extreme attention to detail
- You become a representative of the core DNA of the company through who you are
The Position
Earli is seeking a highly motivated, creative, and scientifically rigorous Scientist or Senior Scientist to join the Delivery team. The successful candidate will play a key role in driving research and discovery work to generate lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that deliver DNA to tumors.
Your Primary Responsibilities
- Drive the design, development, and testing of novel strategies for the delivery of DNA to tumors using LNPs or other nanoparticle systems.
- Generate, characterize, and evaluate LNPs with novel compositions using small-scale (~0.1 mg) high-throughput formulation systems.
- Prepare high-quality mid-scale formulations (0.5-2 mg) and collaborate with colleagues to test in animal models.
- Leverage recent literature to evaluate new lipid components, formulation techniques, and assays to achieve delivery goals, specifically improving delivery to tumors as well as endosomal escape of LNPs and subsequent nuclear delivery of DNA.
- Design and execute sophisticated cell-based assays to understand the efficacy and safety of novel LNPs.
- Manage and interpret scientific data and use these insights to generate reports and presentations.
- Contribute to the invention, from conception through validation, of core intellectual property, and authorship of white papers and other external publications.
- Excellent communication skills with the proven ability to build open and collaborative relationships and work effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary team.
Your Required Experience, Knowledge and Skill
- Ph.D. degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related discipline with 1-3 years of postdoctoral research experience. At least 1 year of experience in the biotech industry is strongly preferred. Other degrees will be considered with appreciable industry experience.
- Demonstrated scientific productivity as evidenced by a strong publication record in top-tier journals or equivalent industry accomplishments.
- An expert level of understanding and hands-on experience in formulation and analysis of lipid-based nucleic acid delivery systems in vivo, including both efficacy and safety assessments. Candidates who have limited or no experience developing nucleic acid systems for in vivo delivery will not be considered.
- Experience with mammalian cell culture and cell-based assays that utilize luciferase reporter, flow cytometry, or microscopy-based readouts.
- Experience implementing high-throughput approaches to test LNPs in vivo is a plus (approaches using design-of-experiments [DoE] and/or barcoding).
- Experience in developing novel LNP compositions (beyond ionizable or helper lipid screening) for in vivo delivery to liver and/or extrahepatic tissues (e.g. tumors, lung, etc.) and/or novel payloads beyond mRNA is strongly preferred.
- Have strong project management skills and can be flexible under shifting priorities.
If interested in applying, please attach a CV or have a well-developed LinkedIn profile for us to be able to assess your background.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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What We Do
Earli mission is to make cancer a benign experience.
Rather than rely on biomarkers that cancer may - or often may not - naturally provide, Earli's technology *forces* cancer cells to make a synthetic, non-human biomarker using gene therapy approaches. It's called a Synthetic Biopsy. It can then localize the cancer in a PET scanner.
Earli has been funded by Andreessen Horowitz's Bio Fund, Khosla, Perceptive Advisors, Casdin Capital, Sands Capital, Marc Benioff, Menlo Ventures, ZhenFund. Earli is based in the West Coast’s prime biotech hub in South San Francisco.
