Co-Founder, Curative Therapies for Inflammatory Disease - Deep Science Ventures

ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. 

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. 

At DSV we are looking for future Founders, entrepreneurially minded individuals with industry-specific technical and commercial domain expertise who are eager to solve urgent unmet challenges through venture building.  In our Pharma unit, we are focused on Curative Therapies, where we apply emerging technologies in combinatorial approaches to solve unmet needs.  To achieve this goal, we build top-tier founding teams to spearhead new ventures.  

Are you interested in joining us?

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking a science-forward, immunology focused Co-Founder to join Dr. David Pajerowski at Flip Therapeutics, a new company with the goal to develop curative therapy for inflammatory disease.  Dave has been building Flip Therapeutics as a Founder-in-Residence in DSV’s venture creation programme over the last 6 months, working closely with the DSV team to devise and de-risk a novel mRNA-based approach to overcome local inflammation in T cell driven immune mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs).   We are looking for a Co-Founder to partner with Dave and complement his experience and strengths in nucleic acid therapies, immune medicines, and driving small and growth company operations.  The team’s key near term goals will be the delivery of the data package necessary to raise seed funding for the company.

By joining Dave at this very early stage in the company’s formation, you will be a driving force in all stages of company operations and strategy, with a key focus on T cell biology and inflammatory disease models.  You will contribute to technology innovation, IP strategy, clinical and product strategy, and fundraising / investor conversations.  In addition, you will be teamed up with Dr. Tauhid Ali, our Venture Partner for this opportunity, who has more than 25 years of leadership experience in biotech/biopharma R&D, company creation, fundraising and VC, and you will be further supported by a growing scientific advisory board and the DSV pharma team.

This venture is close to being launched, and once incorporated with pre-seed investment, the co-founders will own the majority stake in the business and will continue to receive post-spinout support from DSV. 

THE OPPORTUNITY AREA

Inflammatory diseases are chronic and debilitating diseases that represent a huge burden to global human health, with an overall prevalence of between 5 - 7%, and a growing strain on our healthcare system, with a market expected to exceed $180 billion by 2030.  

Despite significant demand and decades of intense research, there remains an absence of cures for inflammatory diseases.  While there has been a transformation of the IMID treatment landscape over the past two decades, courtesy of various biologics and small molecule drugs, therapeutic responses often prove inadequate, benefiting only a subset of patients, fostering drug resistance, or causing significant side effects.  Sustained and complete disease-free recovery remains too uncommon, and no current therapies are durable such that patients relapse after treatment cessation..  

We have recognized that there is an urgent need to shift focus to finding curative approaches to treat the primary sources of inflammation.  With the recent emergence of non-viral genetic medicines and nanoparticle delivery systems, there is now a prime opportunity to tackle this challenge.  Collaborating with AbbVie, a prominent player in inflammatory disease therapeutics, we have spent the last 18 months developing a strategy to selectively and sustainably induce local immune tolerance that can cure immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs). 

What’s the challenge? 

The precise causes of most IMIDs still elude complete understanding, although disease onset and progression is known to involve a complex interplay between genetic susceptibility and environmental triggers.  Current approaches treat the inflammatory mediators that drive disease symptoms, but fail to stamp out inflammation at its source.  Developing curative therapies necessitates the durable restoration of immune balance – targeting the root causes of inflammation rather than merely addressing downstream signals.  An ideal therapy will be relevant to multiple IMIDs simultaneously, and will therefore target a shared causal mechanism or other unifying biology.  This is made more difficult by the diversity of the disease biology at play across IMIDs, and solutions will need to navigate the complexity of IMID heterogeneity and diversity.

We believe that the selective re-induction of local immune tolerance holds great promise in this regard, presenting an opportunity to achieve what has so far been elusive … cures for patients.  Are you ready to dive into this exciting and challenging endeavour to make a lasting impact in the fight against these debilitating diseases?

OUR APPROACH 

We are utilising novel strategies for the application of non-viral genetic medicines to cure inflammation at the source. This strategy is relevant in multiple tissues, and hence in multiple diseases.  To accomplish this, we must overcome various constraints in targeting and redirecting the causal mechanisms, including: efficacy and redundancy in immune responses, durability of effect, on-disease specificity, as well as safety and any immune toxicities. 

Through comprehensive scoping following our systematic process, we have identified a “one and done” approach to reprogramming disease-associated TRMs using an mRNA based therapeutic, and we are looking for someone with the relevant scientific background and excitement to join us in continuing to build and grow this exciting venture.

Requirements

WHO SHOULD APPLY

• You are excited and driven to bring your scientific and problem solving skills to bear on unsolved challenges in immunology and medicine, and have the ambition to join the leadership of an entrepreneurial team developing new solutions for curative therapy.
• You have a PhD or MD in molecular biology, immunology, synthetic biology, molecular/cell biology, medical biotechnology or relevant disciplines and broad technical expertise in the area of T cell biology.
• You have a “roll-up-your-sleeves” approach to problem solving that builds on your technical and scientific strengths.
• You have deep, hands-on experience in the following areas:
• T cell Immunology:  Deep understanding of the fundamentals of T cell biology, including memory and effector T cells, regulatory T cells, tissue resident T cells.  Expertise in primary human and mouse T cell culture, as well as in flow cytometric and related experimental methodologies.
• Inflammatory Disease Biology: Fundamental and systems level understanding of human T cell driven inflammatory diseases, such as those of the joints, gut, skin, nervous system or solid organs.  Familiarity with ex vivo and in vivo models of the relevant diseases.
• A strong plus would be experience in additional areas such as:
• Tolerance induction:  immunological tolerance mechanisms such as T cell anergy, depletion, and suppression by regulatory effectors, and the methodologies used to assess them.
• T cell characterization:  Phenotypic and functional T cell assays, bulk and single cell RNAseq for immune cell profiling, epigenetic profiling, imaging endpoints, and other multi-plex / high dimensionality methods.
• You will be comfortable setting up and leading an experimental cellular immunology lab (and team) and managing in vivo experiments through outsourcing to CROs.
• You have some drug discovery or development experience, or a strong desire to learn more about the process of developing medicines.
• You have a collaborative approach and partnering mindset, and both what and how are equally important in getting the job done.
• You have a demonstrated ability to communicate complex concepts, build consensus, drive decisions and resolve issues both technical and non-technical.
• You are comfortable navigating a hybrid working environment, and will be available to travel internationally multiple times a year as needed to support company operations, team building, conferences, and vendor oversight.
• Candidates located in the Greater Boston Area or Greater London Area / United Kingdom are strongly preferred, but all geographies are welcome.

Start date: as soon as possible

Benefits

ABOUT OUR OFFER

As a fledgling new company, we will work with you to craft an offer that makes sense for you, your co-founder and the company.

By joining a DSV NewCo, you’ll be learning from a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. A majority of DSVs internal team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD (100% of the Pharma team). 

A few notable points:

• Once launched, you and your co-founders will own a majority equity stake in the company.
• Salary is negotiable, but will reflect the very early stage of the company and the equity package.
• Our benefits have not yet been defined, so you'll have input into building a strategy for us that is consistent with the early stage of the company.
• DSV provides up to a £250k investment, governed by their Investment Committee, to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that’s needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs.
• DSV will provide continuous support post spin-out, including access to proprietary venture creation tools, know-how, an advisor network, and a network of other DSV founders, as well as support with fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things).