Scientist II/Senior Scientist I, In Vivo (Osteoarthritis)

Are you ready to play a pivotal role in critical in vivo studies and research activities to support Gordian’s development of novel drug candidates?

We’ve shown that our platform predicts preclinical and clinical physiological responses from in vivo Mosaic screens. You’ll be at the center of a fast-paced team of scientific experts using our platform to run discovery screens for more therapeutic targets than ever before, in the most realistic models of disease!

About the Role:

Your primary mission as a Scientist, In Vivo, is to take ownership of rodent studies in our osteoarthritis (OA) program. You will design and execute experiments to test AAV gene therapies nominated by our mosaic in vivo screens for efficacy on both pain and joint structure. Your work will span both early and late stages of our discovery pipeline, requiring careful consideration of disease biology and a focus on throughput and efficiency to ensure experimental setups are precise and effective. Thanks to your contributions, this critical part of the discovery pipeline will run smoothly, delivering reliable, reproducible data every month in models relevant to human patients.

You will be the primary owner of the OA program’s Confirmation3, and Evaluation in vivo efficacy experiments, designing and executing these independently and thoughtfully. You will serve as the resident expert in pain readouts including load-bearing assays and will bring surgical proficiency to reliably generate MIA and OA mouse models, and deliver gene therapies via intra-articular injections.
Beyond execution, you will think carefully about the therapeutic biology, including model/target interactions, potential side effects, ways to check for them, and suitability/translatability of different models to human patients.

You will also own project management for all in vivo studies, planning ahead to prevent delays from factors such as animal or drug sourcing. As part of this, you will collaborate with other teams at Gordian and identify ways to make workflows more efficient. If needed, you will manage external CROs for in vivo studies and occasionally support ex vivo experiments by assisting with assays and cultures.

What Success Looks Like in Your First 12 Weeks:

In Your First 4 Weeks

With training, you’ll become proficient in DMM model surgeries and intra-articular AAV injections. If you’re already proficient, you’ll focus on mastering load-bearing assays for pain assessment.
You’ll take ownership of an ongoing in vivo structural study in GAN or aged mice (Syracuse3), managing project timelines and ensuring that measurements and assays are performed accurately. During this time, you’ll also get up to speed on Gordian’s collaboration and documentation processes, so you can work seamlessly with our teams and handle experiment-related requests (e.g., requesting virus or FACS work).
For Senior Scientists: Additionally, you’ll gain a thorough understanding of the OA program’s discovery strategy and associated experimental designs. You’ll take over rodent inventory management for the program and begin handling all histological joint scoring, using previous experiments as a guide to build your proficiency.

In Your First 8 Weeks

You’ll gain a thorough understanding of the OA program’s discovery strategy and associated experimental designs. You’ll take over rodent inventory management for the program and begin handling all histological joint scoring, using previous experiments as a guide to build your proficiency. By now, you’ll be executing load-bearing pain assays with confidence and flawlessly conducting in vivo work for Syracuse3. You may also lend a hand with ex vivo assays as needed.
For Senior Scientists: You’ll review our target engagement and toxicology plans, identifying at least one way to improve their efficiency or informativeness.

In Your First 12 Weeks

By this point, you’ll have set up both DMM and MIA models and their related assays in-house, fully owning this process. You’ll lead the scientific planning (with input from the Head of OA) and launch two in vivo studies to assess lead candidate OA drugs, ensuring these studies provide robust final evaluations of both structural and pain outcomes. You’ll also take full responsibility for histological joint scoring, using data from previous experiments as a foundation. Beyond execution, you’ll analyze and report all data from your experiments.
For Senior Scientists: You’ll additionally provide meaningful contributions to the OA program’s patient segmentation strategy, whether by offering ideas or diving into knowledge acquisition & analysis.

And You:

You want a chance to do your best work, immerse yourself and excel, alongside people who will inspire you and whom you’ll be excited to spend your days with.

You 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 are excited to use cutting-edge technology to find the best therapeutic targets for osteoarthritis, and turn those into drugs.

You have experience with complex/fragile culture systems, like primary patient cells or complex differentiation protocols. Ideally you’ve worked with tissue explants and/or primary cells from the joint.

You’re experienced with RT-qPCR and enzymatic protein readouts, including statistical analysis of multi-cohort experiments. Bonus points for experience with GAG assays, inflammatory protein panels, or histological assessment of cartilage.

You have experience managing and collaborating on time-sensitive projects involving large numbers experimental conditions, often with overlapping timecourses. Bonus points for experience collaborating in a team structure across multiple projects.

Bonus points for experience working on drug testing, ideally in industry setting, for direct experience with osteoarthritis or relevant areas of biology (inflammation, tissue regeneration/fibrosis, pain).

The Details:

Gordian aims to provide everything you need to thrive. Beyond our community and science, you’ll have enough equity to be a true stakeholder in the company, competitive salary, full health/dental/vision/life insurance, 401k with match, onsite lunch paid for 3 days a week, an onsite gym, whatever vacation you need to be at your peak, remote work flexibility, and access to world-class mentors and advisors to support your professional growth. Our building is in the heart of the biotech capital of South San Francisco.