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, 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. The innovative TIL cell therapy platform leverages clinically validated treatment protocols and 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 2022.


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 scientific excellence, integrity, urgency and continuous learning/improvement.

Position Overview:

Turnstone’s T cell therapy technology is based on a Selected-TIL process that revolutionizes the generation of tumour targeted T cells for adoptive cell therapy. We are looking for a passionate and driven team player with experience in cell therapy, T cell engineering and culture and immunologic assays to help develop these next gen T cell products for preclinical and clinical evaluation. You will work along side senior researchers and supporting technical colleagues at our Hamilton research facility (located at McMaster University), designing and executing cell-based immunology studies following established standard operating procedures (SOPs). There will also be additional opportunities to continually refine and improve the technology and explore the combination with oncolytic viral therapy. In this role, you will have the opportunity to develop your ability to think strategically, drive fast-paced execution and mentor other team members.

Responsibilities:

·       Design and execute in vitro studies to understand T cell activity, function, cell state and phenotype from human tissues

·       Perform isolation, expansion and phenotyping of various immune cell populations (T cells, DCs and B cells) for use in immounologic assays.

·       Develop and execute in vitro immune assays to determine the function of genes engineered into oncolytic viruses

·       Generate quality data and study summary reports in a timely manner and communicate findings to senior research staff and program teams.

·       Write and review SOPs and oversee training of team members

·       Contribute to a team-centric culture that embraces scientific excellence, collaboration, hard-work and continuous personal and scientific development.


Experience:

  • Research focused degree (Immunology preferred) AND post graduate experience or biotech/pharmaceutical industry experience.
  • Robust understanding of innate and adaptive immune systems and expert knowledge of immune based in vitro assays, flow cytometry, cell-based and biochemical assays such as ICS, ELISpot and ELISA is required.
  •  Knowledge and experience in T cell function/differentiation/signaling/regulation, metabolism/phenotypic analysis of inhibitory and co-stimulatory targets and pathways and/or neoantigen biology and vaccines is preferred.
  • Relevant knowledge and experience with pre-clinical models for adoptive cell therapy is highly preferred
  • Experience working with oncolytic viruses in preclinical models is preferred

To Apply:
Please click here to apply!

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.

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