Postdoctoral Fellow – Translational DMPK Sciences

Position: Postdoctoral Fellow – Translational DMPK Sciences

Location: Beerse, Belgium

Full Time Lab-Based Position – 4 working days in the lab/office and 1 working day remote.

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/.

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J IM) develops treatments that improve the health of people worldwide. Research and development areas encompass oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, immunology, pulmonary hypertension, neuroscience, and infectious disease. Our goal is to help people live longer, healthier lives. We have produced and marketed many first-in-class prescription medications and are poised to serve the broad needs of the healthcare market – from patients to practitioners and from clinics to hospitals. To learn more about J&J Innovative Medicine, visit https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine .

The J&J IM Discovery, Product Development, & Supply (DPDS) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program helps early career scientists gain the training and experience needed to further their careers while addressing the needs of global healthcare. Postdocs work side-by-side with DPDS scientists on innovative research projects and have the opportunity to present and publish their work. They also learn the functional role of scientists in the pharmaceutical industry and receive valuable career advice from mentors while building a network of professional contacts and developing the skills needed to advance their careers.

The Department of Translational PK (Pharmacokinetics)/PD (Pharmacodynamics) and Investigative Toxicology (TPPIT) within Janssen Research & Development is seeking a Postdoctoral Scientist with expertise in the ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) characterization of macrocyclic peptides (MCPs). The successful candidate will join a globally distributed team of dedicated and passionate scientists. You will be member of an inspiring environment where science, innovation and collaboration are key to success.

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading a new translational research project aiming to identify translatable in vitro platforms for peptide stability and permeability testing thereby striving towards rational drug design for oral and/or intracellular peptides with desired ADME properties. The overarching goal of this 2-year project is to define in vitro platforms and effective workstreams for the characterization of peptide stability and cellular permeability, ultimately enabling in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) of orally bioavailable MCPs. This proposal further aims to increase the mechanistic understanding of peptide metabolism and disposition to enhance the development of predictive in silico models.

Responsibilities:

• Designing, planning, and conducting hypothesis driven translational ADME research to define a novel peptide assay toolbox. 
• Increase mechanistic understanding of factors affecting peptide stability and mechanisms of clearance through well-designed in vitro (and in vivo) experiments and integration of the most recent literature. 
• Evaluating, and implementing novel assays and next generation in vitro models to support the ADME characterization of peptides.
• Providing interpretation of data and communicating/reporting results and recommendations to team members, key stakeholders, and collaborators.
• Defining and shaping the TPPIT strategy for ADME characterization of peptides.
• Development, training, conferences. Disseminate the results at internal and external meetings, and through publications in high impact journals.

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