Founder in Residence, Unlocking systemic drug delivery for brain & CNS disease

We are interested in a variety of technical backgrounds. The most important requirement is deep expertise in at least two of the following four areas:

Protein Engineering

• Experience leading protein engineering strategy, protein design, structural analysis, and sequence motif analysis;
• Lead generation campaigns, screening cascades, computational modelling & AI/ML tools;
• Antibody lead generation (in silico or immunisation) & optimisation;
• Synthetic biology: mini proteins, cell-penetrating peptides, endosomal escape peptides, membrane insertion peptides.

Biologics Drug Development

• Experience across diverse modalities: bispecific antibodies, protein fusions, antibody conjugates, Fc engineering, synthetic proteins, macrocyclic peptides;
• Discovery & pre-clinical development (target ID, target validation, lead generation, lead optimisation, DC, IND);
• Developability (PK/PD, ADME, Toxicology, CMC);
• In vitro and in vivo pharmacology and study design for protein biologics.

Cell Biology & Neurobiology

• Intracellular trafficking, endocytosis, adaptor proteins, endosomal sorting, tubule formation, kinesin transport;
• Blood-brain barrier biology, endothelial cell biology, transcytosis, receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT), carrier-mediated transcytosis (CMT);
• CNS disease biology (AD, PD, MS, and other neurological conditions);
• Human BBB translational models (e.g. in vitro iPSC-derived BBB models).

Medicinal Chemistry

• Small molecule conjugates, cleavable linkers, molecular glues, degraders;
• Experience in CNS-penetrant small molecule design and efflux transporter biology.

• Track record of translating scientific concepts from discovery through to in vivo proof-of-concept or IND;
• Experience managing CRO/CDMO or Pharma programmes and building regulator- or investor-ready data packages;
• You are highly motivated by unsolved challenges in CNS drug delivery, and driven to challenge the status quo of how we treat brain diseases;
• You are impact driven, take the initiative, make things happen, and can think from a first principles perspective to figure out what’s really needed;
• You have clear entrepreneurial spirit and mindset, demonstrated through impactful innovation, and an ability to work in ambiguous, unstructured but fast-paced, demanding and pressurised environments;
• Collaborative nature, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

• CNS preclinical or clinical drug development experience;
• Single-cell transcriptomic data analysis;
• Target & biomarker identification;
• Deep understanding of IP - FTO and patentability, with a track record of patents in this field;
• Track record of publications and/or thought leadership in CNS delivery or related fields;
• Previous biotech founder or C-suite leadership experience;
• Previous fundraising experience (VC, dilutive or non-dilutive);
• Experience building and leading successful scientific or cross-functional teams;
• Network across CNS pharma, biotech, or relevant academic institutions.

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is on a mission to create a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out, and invest in science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. Operating in four sectors - Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture, and Computation - we tackle the challenges defining these areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.