Turnstone Biologics (“Turnstone”), a privately held clinical stage biotech company, is developing breakthrough cancer immunotherapies. By advancing two leading and complementary platforms, that drive innate and adaptive tumor immunity, we aim to provide benefit to the millions of cancer patients underserved by current treatment options. Turnstone’s proprietary vaccinia virus platform is engineered to drive coordinated immune activation, potent viral activity, and local expression of encoded therapeutics. Additionally, our innovative tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) platform leverages clinically validated treatment protocols. It has been specifically designed to extend beyond the use of bulk TILs to enrich for the most relevant T-cells for tumor eradication, preserving broad antigen diversity and minimizing time to treatment for patients. The Company has an ongoing Phase 1/2a trial in solid tumors (RAPTOR) for its leading oncolytic virus candidate, RIVAL-01, and is expecting to file an IND for the lead TIL therapy candidate, TIDAL-01, in 2021. 

  

At Turnstone, the science drives decision-making and our therapeutics are designed with the patient foremost in mind. We continue to build a world-class, high-performing company that embraces being a learning organization with a sense of urgency. Imagine coming to work every day where over-communication, transparency, teaching, listening, asking, thinking, working hard, and having fun are normal – actually, expected? Imagine having a coach, mentor, peers, and partners where candid feedback, self-improvement, risk taking, failing, learning from that failing, and succeeding thereafter are what we call ‘another day at Turnstone’? If you are a passionate person, and our science excites you – this opportunity may be for you.

 

What would it be like? 

 

In this role, you will have the opportunity to develop your ability to think strategically and drive fast-paced execution.  With our company size and growth, we will give you plenty of opportunities for you to be an inspirational and collaborative functional leader.  Passionate about being a part of a critical function of a growing company and continuous learning?  We will have plenty of that for you! 

This role will lead the development of data platforms to analyze preclinical, manufacturing and clinical data. You will lead the aggregation and analysis of multiple data types including bulk and single cell genome and transcript sequence data, multiplexed flow cytometry, proteomics, pathology, functional immunology, and manufacturing data. You will help define mechanisms of action, manufacturing optimization strategies and product portfolio development and selection as well as to generate hypotheses that will define and drive the next generation of oncology therapies.

 

We are in the early stages of building strategies, structures and process so this role will be busy and expanding. You would have the opportunity to create something new and ‘WOW!’ all of us and grow right along with the company. Turnstone is based in Ottawa, Canada, and San Deigo, USA. This role can be associated with either site, or remote, assuming flexibility to travel between sites as required. 

 

The Responsibilities of the role include:

 

·      Supervise and mentor all company bioinformatics/computational biology/machine learning staff to generate biological insights.

·      Lead end-to-end analyses that include tool development, processing, analysis, iteration with partners, and presentation of results

·      Design, execute, and own computationally efficient software solutions to analyze large, complex genomics datasets using machine learning and statistical methods

·      Investigate the biology of tumor-reactive T cells, nucleic acid in cancer, generate statistically secure findings, and relate them to performance and clinical value of novel gene and cellular therapies

·      Interact cross-functionally and work closely with interdisciplinary teams including research, clinical, product development, laboratory operations, and external collaborators

·      Lead cross-functional collaborations between informatics team and other R&D and GMP manufacturing functions and teams

·      Work with company executive leadership to formulate and translate corporate strategy and priorities into concrete informatics projects and deliverables

·      Represent company externally in informatics in business development activities and industry conferences

·      Stay abreast of industry and academic developments in the statistical genomics and real-world evidence generation and apply to translational study design and analysis

 

 

How do you know if you’re the right fit?:

 

·      Ph.D. (or MSc + with at least 8 years) in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Statistics, Biological Sciences, Cancer Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Computer Science, Physics, or equivalent preparation and experience.

·      This role will be positioned out of either site in San Diego or Ottawa

·      Willingness to travel (when it’s safe as it pertains to global pandemics) up to 25% to other Turnstone sites

·      Proven track record of strong contributions demonstrated by highly cited publications, impactful tools, products, or data sets used by the scientific community and presentations at international conferences.

·      Track record of significant scientific contribution to successful drug or diagnostic development programs

·      Deep expertise in cancer genomics

• Extensive experience in molecular biology and NGS assay development and automation
• Experience with Illumina NGS workflows including library construction, hybrid capture enrichment, or amplicon-based sequencing

·      Lead authorship roles on high-impact publications

·      Experience with commercial deployment of AWS services and scale up/out of genomics analysis.

·      Experience leading informatics in the FDA regulated / GMP manufacturing setting

·      Able to work effectively in a fast-paced, small biotech environment

·      Strategic agility and strong critical and logical thinking

·      Willingness to roll-up sleeves and pitch in to help team hit milestones

·      Strong ability to prioritize, multi-task, and work in an evolving environment

·      Excellent presentation and written/verbal communication skills

·      Contribute to building a culture that embraces scientific excellence, integrity, urgency, partnerships with key stakeholders and continuous learning/improvements.

 

 

Turnstone Biologics welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.  We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected will be invited for an interview.