This position will work with the UICentre leadership and project teams to design, synthesize, and optimize novel chemical entities in support of drug discovery and development. The Research Scientist will manage UICentre chemical laboratories and libraries. The Research Scientist will propose, design, execute/supervise, and communicate the results of experiments to evaluate compounds using highly specialized knowledge of state-of-the-art equipment and methodologies. UICentre is seeking  up to 2 FTEs  for this position. 

• Work within interdisciplinary research teams to design and synthesize drug leads/candidates in support of hit-to-lead and lead -to-candidate objectives.  Specifically, will plan and execute multi-step syntheses to generate key target molecules, followed by their purification and chemical characterization.
• Optimize the structures of promising chemical entities to improve their pharmacophores, binding affinities, pharmacokinetics or stability, applying the appropriate computational tools.  For compounds entering preclinical animal studies, assist with bulk scale up and formulation decisions.
• Utilize, as appropriate, de novo structure-based design using in silico, computational techniques.
• Attend UICentre meetings and assist with scientific project management as needed.  Contribute to team discussions and decisions regarding new concepts for hit-to-lead optimization, structure-activity relationships, ADMET properties and other.
• Organize data for presentations and publications, configure slide decks and present research reports to UICentre team members and other research groups.
• Plan, assign and review the work of research staff and trainees to ensure that objectives and project milestones are met.  Hire, train, develop and manage researchers to ensure that a qualified staff exists to meet team objectives.
• Participate in efforts to obtain extramural research funding at the level of Co-Investigator.

• Ph.D. degree in organic or medicinal chemistry or closely related field and a minimum of 3 years of postdoctoral research experience.
• Expert knowledge of organic reaction mechanisms and modern synthetic methodologies to include microwave synthesis, click chemistry, and carbohydrate and peptidomimetic chemistries.
• Extensive hands-on experience with mass spectrometry, UV, IR and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and HPLC techniques.
• Broad familiarity with various facets of medicinal chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, natural products chemistry, enzymology, xenobiotic metabolism, chemical biology, structural biology and computational methods.
• Must possess excellent technical and troubleshooting abilities to ensure critical laboratory equipment performance and assay integrity and the ability to adhere to strict protocols in accordance with standard operating protocols.
• Must exhibit competence with various chemical and molecular modeling software as well as general biomedical literature and reference sources.
• Must be able to communicate and participate effectively in team settings.