RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

THE DESTINATION:
Gordian Biotechnology is a therapeutics company focused on diseases of aging, the major unmet medical need of our generation.

Age-related diseases have complex etiologies that depend on interactions with the aged
environment, and traditional ex vivo screening methods have failed to produce effective
treatments.

To address this problem, Gordian’s platform delivers and tests hundreds of therapeutics in individual animals. We thus scale in vivo efficacy testing to cover every therapeutic target at the very beginning of the drug discovery process. This lets us choose targets that really impact disease biology, to develop and commercialize novel therapies for the world’s deadliest diseases and eventually for the processes of aging itself.

THE JOURNEY:
Our mission is audacious, and the path will be full of both challenges and excitement.
Two things characterize the Gordian experience: 1) We work as a team, with ownership in our own roles and trust in each other. 2) We strive for extraordinary, and in doing so grow our skills and capability.

Team – Relying on each other begins with transparency. We set clear goals, visibly
connecting individuals and teams to our company objectives. With this alignment, we are each empowered to make autonomous decisions about our work, knowing how they will affect the bigger picture. Transparency extends to our communication, allowing us to focus on the collective good. We give and receive feedback as comrades, without ego, to help us all grow. We share mistakes and ask for help, to avoid compromising each other.

Extraordinary – We habitually try to do more than we thought possible, faster than we
thought possible. Our mission motivates us to exceed ourselves, regardless of what it
takes to get there. Every day, we ask ourselves ‘could this be done better?’. Our
colleagues are amazing, both at what they do and as people. They are so impressive that
we push ourselves to keep up, to not let them down, and be inspiring in return.
If this environment sounds appealing, help us bring it to life. We are at the beginning of a long journey, and want both your ability and your personality along for the ride. Our
culture is a source of great pride; it represents both who we are, and who we wish to be.

You can dive deeper here: https://www.gordian.bio/s/Values.pdf.

AND YOU:
You have a history of successful execution, both in- and outside of your job description.
You want a chance to do your best work, immerse yourself and excel, with people you’ll
want to spend most of your time with.

You truly want to play a key role in an early-stage startup: A fast-paced environment full of both uncertainty and new challenges, demanding relentless resourcefulness.

You have deep ambitions and broad curiosity. You are motivated by the opportunity to
learn and grow endlessly within a meritocratic and empowering company, with no limits to advancement based on formal credentials.

Your mission as a research associate is to keep the core engine of the company
running, thus directly increasing time for other employees to expand Gordian’s
screening capabilities. This involves reliably executing Gordian laboratory protocols in 2-3 of the following areas: NGS library preparation, plasmid cloning and production, cell culture, and mouse colony maintenance and experimentation. If you have experience in several of these areas but are not yet expert, you will quickly become so with the guidance and mentorship of your colleagues. By 3 months, you will have mastered Gordian protocols in 2 of the laboratory focus areas and will execute these protocols with >95% success rate at the same speed and output quality as your mentor(s). Moving forward, your continued growth will be expected and supported, both in scientific development and expansion of technical expertise.

Each of the technical areas listed above represents a critical part of the core engine at
Gordian, and requires careful execution and dedication to quality data. You will be
working on multiple projects at once, and seamless communication across departments is essential. You will need to pay excellent attention to experiment descriptions and
required outputs, and will be responsible for maintaining records and databases for
samples produced in this role. You will strive for extraordinary by addressing any issues, errors, or optimizations promptly and openly to ensure maximum trust of data produced in this role. On the technical side, you should have experience in 2-3 of the following areas:

● Next Generation Sequencing library preparation: taking sample(s) from cDNA to
sequencing-ready library. Familiarity with operation of Illumina sequencers also
desired.
● Plasmid cloning and production: standard cloning techniques including PCR, gel
electrophoresis, bacterial transformation, picking colonies, mini/midi-prep.
Experience in plasmid design/maintenance on Benchling and Sanger sequencing
analysis also desired.
● Cell culture: mammalian cell culture including making and changing media,
splitting cells, transfection.
● Mouse colony maintenance and manipulation: comfortable handling and working
with mice, and experience in 2 of the following - weighing/feeding mouse cohorts,
dosing (ie. gavage, intravenous, intraperitoneal, or subcutaneous injection), blood
draws, survival surgeries, necropsy/dissection.

Longer term laboratory experience (>1yr), experience parallelizing large sample sets, and prior understanding of large-scale screens are all pluses.

THE DETAILS:
Gordian aims to provide everything you need to thrive. Beyond our community and work challenges, you’ll have equity to feel like a true stakeholder in the company, salary and benefits to remove living concerns, whatever vacation you need to be at your peak, and the professional development and support you need to grow. Our labs are in the
Dogpatch, near UCSF Mission Bay.