Alkion BioInnovations, an Imperial College’s spinoff, is a young biotech company located at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) in Versailles, France. Alkion has developed an innovative patented production method of complex active ingredients in plants.
Our mission is to offer a sustainable, economical, and quality production of high-value plant ingredients to pharmaceutical, agri-food and cosmetics industries. Alkion was the first French company to obtain a R&D license on Cannabis and has received many French and EU awards and grants for its pioneering works.
To support our growth, we are currently looking for a Research Scientist in plant molecular biology to join our R&D team of 8 Scientists and Research Technicians and manage exciting and challenging plant molecular pharmaceutical & agrifood projects from development to industrialisation, directly reporting to our CSO.
* Your role:
- Define and supervise scientific and technological projects to produce metabolites and recombinant proteins in plants
- Work collaboratively with other team members (plant tissue culture and biosynthesis)
- Participate in the laboratory’s global organisation
- Report to CSO
- Attend conferences and make scientific presentations
- Participate on R&D tasks (non exhaustive):
– Design and establishment of cloning strategy for protein expression (PCR, transformation of micro-organism and plant)
– In vitro plant propagation methods, callus transformation and regeneration methods
– Biomass propagation in bioreactors
– Extraction and confirmation of target protein expression (Western-Blot…)
* Your profile:
- Ph.D. in plant biology or plant biochemistry (mandatory) with preferably a strong emphasis on molecular biology, protein biochemistry and in vitro propagation methods.
- Background to include a minimum of 3 years in a public or private organisation with ideally >2 years experience in protein production, extraction and purification.
- Experience in managing projects, including project planning and reporting
- Positive experience of management of interns and/or technicians
- Usage on a daily basis of molecular biology methods (nucleic acid extraction and purification, PCR, qPCR, sequencing, gene editing technology…)
- Industrial experience is a plus
- Knowledge of patent application is also a plus
- Ability to work in English – International experience.
* Your personality:
- Demonstrated scientific creativity, initiative, autonomy and problem-solving capability
- Good communication, organization, teamwork skills
- Entrepreneurial mind, positive and open-minded
We are committed to gender equality, diversity and inclusion.
The company’s working languages are French and English. We have an international background and welcome international high potential candidates.
Competitive package.
Start date: ASAP
Location: INRAE Versailles, France
Contact: Julien Sechet, CSO : julien.sechet@alkinnov.com