Company Description
Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycle® molecules, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycle molecules are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycle molecules attractive candidates for drug development. The company is evaluating zelenectide pevedotin (formerly BT8009), a Bicycle® Toxin Conjugate (BTC®) targeting Nectin-4, a well-validated tumor antigen; BT5528, a BTC molecule targeting EphA2, a historically undruggable target; and BT7480, a Bicycle Tumor-Targeted Immune Cell Agonist® (Bicycle TICA®) targeting Nectin-4 and agonizing CD137, in company-sponsored clinical trials. Additionally, the company is developing Bicycle® Radio Conjugates (BRC™) for radiopharmaceutical use and, through various partnerships, is exploring the use of Bicycle® technology to develop therapies for diseases beyond oncology.
Bicycle Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in Cambridge, Mass.
Culture is key and all Bicycle employees actively embrace and role model our company values:
- We are Adventurous. We believe it's the way to deliver extraordinary results for our patients.
- We are Dedicated to our Mission. You can't change the world if you don't have determination
- We are One Team. We only succeed when we work together.
Job Description
We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Scientist to join our Structural Biology Team: You will join a team dedicated to obtaining high-quality protein structural data to positively impact a wide range of drug discovery programs, both internal and partnered. The candidate activities will be related mainly to two methods: X-ray protein crystallography and Cryo-electron microscopy (CryoEM).
You will employ different structural methods to furnish insights into target biology and map protein-ligand interactions to power structure-guided drug design of our unique Bicycle® peptides. You will work closely with cross-functional project teams to generate impactful structural data that drives project success and scientific publications.
You will be highly-motivated, self-reliant with experience delivering, interpreting and validating structural data. Excellent technical expertise in structural biology methods and strong communication skills are essential.
Key responsibilities
- Drive structural biology-related activities of Discovery programs
- Solve protein structures employing Protein crystallography or CryoEM methods
- Critical interpretation and presentation of structural data to internal and external project teams to aid target understanding
- Work closely with computational and medicinal chemists to enable structure-guided Bicycle designs
- Work with Protein Sciences and Biophysics teams to validate biochemical data relevant for structure determination and target-specific assays
- Prepare materials for publication where structural data has been produced (figure generation, compiling data for PDB deposition etc.)
- Data integrity and communication
- Accurately document and annotate structural biology data
- Present data and conclusions to project teams in oral and/or written form
- Integrate structural biology data into the electronic lab book (Dotmatics)
Qualifications
- Educated structural biology or equivalent qualification/experience
- Expertise in X-ray crystallography or Cryo-electron microscopy (CryoEM)
- Capable of independently designing and safely executing wet lab experiments
- Experience in biochemical and biophysical characterization of proteins, specifically in construct design and sample quality evaluation
- Experience of working in a pharmaceutical/biotechnology/drug discovery setting
- Experience using software/computational methods to aid structure-based drug design
- Familiarity with related techniques such as SAXS and NMR
- Strong interpersonal skills; effective communication with multidisciplinary teams both locally and remotely
- Proactive approach to problem solving and strong self-motivation
- Excellent organisational skills and close attention to detail
- Diligence in documenting work and understanding of data integrity importance
- Good computing skills; proficiency with MS Office Suite
Additional Information
- State-of-the-art campus environment with on campus restaurant and Montessori nursery
- Flexible working environment
- Competitive reward including annual company bonus
- Employee recognition schemes
- 28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays + option to buy up to 5 additional days annually
- Employer contribution to pension (employee does not have to contribute)
- Life assurance cover 4x basic salary
- Private Medical Insurance, including optical and dental cover.
- Group income protection
- Employee assistance program
- Health Cash Plan
- Access to company subsidized gym membership.
- Eligibility for an option grant to subscribe to shares in Bicycle Therapeutics plc.
- Cycle to work scheme
Bicycle Therapeutics is committed to building a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. We recognize that diverse and inclusive teams build a stronger and more innovative company. Therefore, all qualified applicants will be considered for employment, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability status, marital status, or veteran status.
Top Skills
What We Do
We are Bicycle Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. We didn’t wait for the next advance against cancer. We created it.
Based on groundbreaking work conceived in the laboratory of Sir Greg Winter with the help of Professor Christian Heinis, we are pioneering the development of bicyclic peptides, or Bicycles® – a novel class of versatile, chemically synthesized medicines. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained to form two loops which stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint is designed to confer high affinity and selectivity, and the relatively large surface area presented by the molecule allows targets to be drugged that have historically been intractable to non-biological approaches. Bicycles represent a unique therapeutic class, combining the pharmacological properties normally associated with a biologic with the manufacturing and pharmacokinetic advantages of a small molecule, yet with no signs of immunogenicity observed to date.
Bicycles can be used as Bicycle conjugates to deliver toxin payloads and to precisely target local immune activation within tumors and as Bicycle T-cell modulators, which activate cytotoxic T-cells while circumventing the limitations of antibody and biologic therapies and better enabling combination therapy. Our lead product candidate, BT1718, is a Bicycle toxin conjugate currently being investigated in a Phase I/IIa open label dose escalation and expansion clinical trial sponsored by Cancer Research UK. BT1718 targets Membrane Type 1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP), also known as MMP-14, which is highly expressed in many solid tumors.
Our strategic collaborations are based on the ability of Bicycles to address a wide variety of targets. Through collaborations with AstraZeneca, Oxurion, Innovate UK and the Dementia Discovery Fund, we work with companies that have deep therapeutic expertise outside of oncology to enable us to more efficiently develop novel medicines for patients.
