Description
Description:Within the department, our group performs biophysical assays to assess the binding strength and epitope, stability and manufacturability of all drug candidates. This project consists of creating several macros that would greatly increase our throughput by making it easier to handle large numbers of samples, ensure consistent data formatting for each assay, increase analysis speed and simplify the generation of PowerPoint figures and slides from the analyzed data.
To handle more samples more efficiently, macros need to be written to generate standard data file formats for a number of different assays. Additionally, these data files would vary to accommodate the particular number of samples being tested for any particular project. It may also be required to write macros to read text out of Word documents and placing it into fields in Excel files. A separate file would be generated to command a liquid handling robot to automatically generate the plates containing the samples. The candidate would also program the robot to make the sample plates, in collaboration with other lab members and/or the robot vendor.
The plates from the robot are run on several different instruments and the candidate would see how far data analysis could be pushed to (1) insert results into the data files (semi-)automatically and/or (2) reformat output files to collate the relevant data. Lastly, further macros would be written to take the data and generate figures that can be placed into PowerPoint for presenting the results. The candidate would work closely with several different team members to fully understand the file format requirements for different assays, data sets and reporting formats.
SKILLS:
Requirements:
Experience with writing file handling macros for the Microsoft Office suite of programs: Excel, PowerPoint and to a lesser extent, Word.
General knowledge of programming beyond Microsoft's VBA a plus, as would be experience with liquid handling robots.
For the latter there is some expertise within the lab to help and the manufacturer is likely to help. General knowledge of making drugs/the pharmaceutical experience a must; experience with biophysical/biochemical characterization of antibody based drugs a strong plus; experience of working with proteins a plus. Although the candidate would be working closely with myself and several other team members initially, the ability to problem solve and work independently is required. BA degree in a scientific field preferred. Do not want Computer/IT candidates - prefer a scientist (biologist, chemist, pharmaceutical sciences) with experience in programming. Pharma experience required. MS Excel desired.