Senior Research Associate / Associate Scientist, Targeted LNP Delivery

Your Impact at LILA

We are seeking a (Senior) Research Associate to join our Life Sciences team. This role will focus on formulating lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), functionalizing them with targeting ligands, and characterizing the resulting targeted LNPs (tLNPs). The ideal candidate will have hands-on expertise in LNP formulation and characterization, bioconjugation, protein characterization, and automation technologies. Your work will unlock new understandings in the delivery space by enabling a high-throughput closed-loop screening cascade for tLNPs. This position will work closely with others across the protein, cell biology, automation, chemistry machine learning, and data science teams to help establish high-throughput next-generation tools for targeted nucleic acid delivery.

What You'll Be Building

• Design, execute, and characterize (DLS, ribogreen, TNS, etc.) LNP formulations across multiple scales and mixing modalities
• Develop and refine high-throughput ligand conjugation and purification methods, employing automation and robotics to increase throughput
• Collaborate with cell assay and antibody specialists to screen hits across a variety of tissue targets in in vivo models
• Collaborate with chemists, biologists, engineers, and data scientists to document systems, share insights, and refine best practices in autonomous flow chemistry
• Write, implement, and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for both existing and new lab processes

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• MSc in Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related field with 3+ years, or BSc with 5+ years, of hands-on experience in targeted LNP production, or related experience. Industry experience strongly preferred
• Strong working knowledge of bioanalytical techniques (e.g., DLS, fluorescence spectroscopy, electrophoresis, in vitro assays)
• Experience with protein and antibody design and characterization
• Familiarity with automation and high-throughput workflows
• Excellent troubleshooting, communication and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to work effectively across interdisciplinary teams