Postdoctoral Fellow – New functional groups for medicinal chemistry Sweden - Gothenburg

R-215172: Postdoctoral Fellow – New functional groups for medicinal chemistry
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Competitive Salary, Bonus & Benefits Package

Do you have expertise in, and passion for synthetic organic chemistry? Would you like to apply your knowledge to impact drug discovery projects in a company that follows the science and turns ideas into life-changing medicines? Then join us at AstraZeneca and unlock the power of what science can do!

About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a global, science-led, patient-centred biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovering, developing, and commercialising prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious diseases. But we’re more than a global leading pharmaceutical company. At AstraZeneca, we're dedicated to being a Great Place to Work and empowering employees to push the boundaries of science and fuel their entrepreneurial spirit. 

About our Postdoc Programme
Bring your expertise, apply your knowledge, follow the science, and make a difference. AstraZeneca’s Postdoc Programme is for self-motivated individuals looking to deliver exciting projects in an encouraging, engaging, and innovative environment. You'll work with multidisciplinary scientific teams from a diverse set of backgrounds and a world-class academic mentor specifically aligned to your project. Our postdocs are respected as specialists, encouraged to speak up, and supported to share their research at conferences, publish papers, achieve their goals.

Make a more meaningful impact in your career, with greater ownership and accountability to make a contribution whilst making a difference to the lives of our patients!

This is a 3-year programme, with an initial 2-year period and a 1-year merit-based extension.

About the Opportunity
The purpose of this position is to provide early-career researchers with an opportunity to further develop their expertise and skills in the field of synthetic organic chemistry in an industry setting to impact future drug discovery. As a Postdoctoral Fellow you play a crucial role in advancing scientific knowledge and driving innovation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

The successful Postdoctoral Fellow will join AZ’s Medicinal Chemistry Department within Early Respiratory and Immunology (R&I), within BioPharma R&D, and work in close collaboration with colleagues from Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) in early R&I and the department of medicinal chemistry in early Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM). In our state-of-the-art chemistry research laboratories we explore new frontiers of science and push the boundaries of synthetic and medicinal chemistry to discover the drugs of tomorrow to improve patients´ lives and benefit society. 
 
Project Focus
The Postdoctoral Fellow will build on a recently discovered novel synthetic transformation to functionalize strong C–H bonds using photochemistry and expand this method to access a plethora of novel structural motifs in bioactive compounds. You will then collaborate with experienced AZ scientists to investigate the ADME properties of the newly synthesized compounds to elucidate how they can be used to improve the ADME properties of biologically active drug-like compounds to impact future drug design. 

Supported by Stefan Schiesser (Director, early R&I Medicinal Chemistry at AstraZeneca), Antonio Llinas (Principal Scientist, early R&I DMPK at AstraZeneca) and Magnus J. Johansson (Senior Principal Scientist, early CVRM Medicinal Chemistry at AstraZeneca), you'll also receive academic mentorship and guidance from Joanna Wencel-Delord (Professor at University of Würzburg) – a well-recognized expert in method development. 

What You’ll Do
As a Postdoctoral Fellow, you will work in a state-of-the-art industrial research laboratory together with experts in synthetic organic chemistry (including a modern high-throughput experimentation, HTE lab), medicinal chemistry, and DMPK. This is an ideal ground for discussing scientific ideas, thriving science to explore new research areas, and to experience how synthetic organic chemistry can accelerate medicinal chemistry and influence future drug design. In a highly collaborative team, the Postdoctoral Fellow will be exposed to various functions within drug discovery and expand their scientific and personal network to continuously grow in their career. 

Key Duties & Responsibilities:
•    Optimize the reaction conditions for photocatalytic C–H functionalization reactions
•    Conduct detailed literature survey to propose alternative reaction conditions
•    Explore the substrate scopes of the novel synthetic method
•    Apply the optimized reaction conditions to drug-like molecules and investigate their ADME properties.
•    In collaboration with computational chemists at AstraZeneca elucidate the reaction mechanism and perform studies to confirm proposed reaction mechanism
•    Plan, write, publish high-quality scientific papers and present at key conferences

Essential Requirements
•    PhD degree in synthetic organic chemistry
•    Experience with discovery, optimization, and substrate scope exploration of new synthetic transformations
•    Good knowledge of contemporary organic chemistry
•    Strong record of publishing in peer-reviewed journals
•    Strong planning, organizational and time management skills
•    Excellent team-working ability to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary research environment and strong motivation to explore new frontiers in chemistry

Our Postdoc programme is aimed at individuals who are either:
•    Within 5-years of obtaining their doctoral degree (PhD, DVM, or MD) - PhD already awarded, or
•    Students, soon to obtain doctoral degrees (the PhD must be awarded within 6 months of joining AstraZeneca)

Desirable Requirements
•    An understanding of photo chemistry and/or C-H functionalization
•    Excellent written and oral communication skills

Reasons to Apply
This is a fantastic opportunity to increase your skills in organic chemistry with the opportunity for direct applications in medicinal chemistry. You will work in an industry-leading group with a strong publication track record and be supported by a leading academic supervisor in C-H fucntionalization and photoredox chemistry. Additional to increasing your knowledge in organic chemistry and how it impacts medicinal chemistry this is an exciting opportunity to expand your professional network and get to know the pharmaceutical industry.
As a respected specialist, we will empower you to take appropriate risks, lead the project and “run with it”, along with providing you will all the support you need. 

Why AstraZeneca
The unique positioning of this postdoc within a pharmaceutical company such as AZ, means that you will be able to access large datasets which are not available in the public domain. Moreover, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that methods and techniques you develop will not only be published but will also be used within AZ after the postdoc position concludes, in real-life projects - and that ultimately the work you do will directly impact patients’ lives!

On-Site Working
The position is located at our research site in Gothenburg, Sweden.
As a key member of a research group and taking a leading role on a Postdoctoral project, we expect regular attendance - a minimum of 3 days per week on the AstraZeneca campus. For laboratory-based scientists, this may be higher. 

Given the unique positioning of our Postdoctoral researchers, you may have an additional opportunity to spend some time with an external academic mentor. In this instance, you may be required to spend some of your time working alongside them at their facility as driven by the research project.

Your flexibility to meet the needs of the research and the scope of the project is required and we also look to support you with flexibility in accordance with our standard work policies.

Next Steps
If your passion is science and you want to be part of a team that makes a bigger impact on patients’ lives, then there’s no better place to be. 

This advert will be running from January 2, 2025 and, we welcome your application as soon as possible, but ahead of the scheduled closing date of January 31, 2025. In the event, that we identify suitable candidates ahead of the scheduled closing date, we reserve the right to close the vacancy earlier than published. 

Find Out More

AZ's Postdoc Programme

AstraZeneca - Respiratory & Immunology

Life at AstraZeneca

This is what we're made of

Relocate to Gothenburg

Date Posted

02-jan.-2025

Closing Date

31-jan.-2025

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.