Postdoctoral Fellow in Medicinal Chemistry (Cancer Drug Discovery)

Postdoctoral Fellow in Medicinal Chemistry (Cancer Drug Discovery)

The Monastyrskyi lab at Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute (Tampa, Fl) is seeking a highly motivated synthetic organic chemist and/or medicinal chemist to join a comprehensive drug discovery program to develop small molecules for studying and modulating therapeutically relevant cancer targets.

Dr. Monastyrskyi is conducting highly interdisciplinary research focused on preclinical and IND safety assessment candidates’ developments which cover synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, computer-assisted drug design, cheminformatics, and chemical biology. For further information on our laboratory and research program, please visit – http://monastyrskyi.moffitt.org

Position Highlights:

• The successful candidate will be involved in design and synthesis of small molecule modulators targeting kinase proteins and/or RNAs relevant to cancer.
  • The position will allow the candidate to develop valuable new skills and experience in drug discovery and chemical biology that include but not limited to:
    • Drug discovery tool synthesis and development
    • Analysis of in vitro and in vivo activity of compounds
    • Structure-based drug design
    • Hit-to-lead progression
    • ADME and PK-driven lead optimization
    • Pre-clinical candidate selection.

The Ideal Candidate:

• The candidate must be independent in designing synthetic routes, solving challenging synthetic problems, efficient in synthesizing targeted molecules (including multi-step synthesis) and using modern purification and characterization techniques (HPLC, LC-MS, NMR, etc).
• Experience with the safe handling of reactive and air-sensitive materials.
• Excellent analytical skills and the ability to interpret complex information and data.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills are required.

Responsibilities:

• The duties will include design, synthesis, purification and characterization of new heterocyclic small molecules of existing leads to develop biologically active compounds for testing in biochemical, cell-based and in vivo assays. 
• Design and synthesis of chemical probes for chemical proteomics and detailed mode-of-action studies.
• Multi-gram reaction scale-up.
• Contribute to the development of research techniques and methods in collaboration with other lab members.
• Documentation of all experiments in electronic notebooks including written, publication- quality experimental procedures, MS and NMR records.
• Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, posters and oral presentations

• Provide guidance, as required, to support any graduate or undergraduate students who may be assisting with the research.

• Contributing to Center-wide drug discovery activities.
• The appointed Postdoctoral Fellow will often be required to work on several projects concurrently and also needs to have the experience to be able to operate within a multidisciplinary research environment.

Credentials and Qualifications:

• Applicant must have a Ph.D. (or be close to completing) in synthetic organic chemistry or medicinal chemistry with specific experience in heterocyclic chemistry and/or methodology development.

How to Apply:

Interested applicants should send a single PDF file that includes:

1. a cover letter summarizing outlining candidate’s motivations and suitability
2. a summary of research accomplishments (4 pages maximum)
3. current CV with recent publications and
4. contact information for three references to Dr. Monastyrskyi andrii.monastyrskyi@moffitt.org