Research Intern - Druggability Pipeline

Owkin

Owkin

Paris, France
Posted on Wednesday, August 21, 2024

About us

Owkin is an AI biotechnology company that uses AI to find the right treatment for every patient. We combine the best of human and artificial intelligence to answer the research questions shared by biopharma and academic researchers. By closing the translational gap between complex biology and new treatments, we bring new diagnostics and drugs to patients sooner.

Owkin has raised over $300 million and became a unicorn through investments from leading biopharma companies (Sanofi and BMS) and venture funds (Fidelity, GV and BPI, among others).

Owkin is seeking the best and brightest to join our fast-growing and dynamic team.

About the role:

The Owkin R&D department aims at leveraging high-quality multi-modal datasets and powerful AI modeling to accelerate bringing the right drugs to the right patients faster. A large pluri-disciplinary team or research scientists works on different AI drug discovery aspects such as identifying new promising therapeutic targets, new indications and subgroups, as well as positioning drugs on the right patient subgroups.

The Computational Drug Discovery team in Owkin’s R&D operates multiple workstreams, interacting closely with other R&D teams and transversal functions. One critical workstream aims to enhance the efficiency of druggability assessment of given targets and candidate compounds through automation. Druggability assessment, a crucial step in drug discovery, involves evaluating protein targets and their interactions with potential drug compounds.

The team is looking for a promising intern to focus on automation and augmentation of Owkin’s current target assessment process, e.g., regarding druggability. As part of the project, the intern will have the opportunity to learn about the steps involved in target druggability assessment, identify and propose automation strategies for each step and implement the most promising ones. Once this first automated pipeline is completed and tested, a second phase will consist in interviewing key stakeholders involved in this process to identify additional steps or components – e.g. additional information via data scraping or internal data modeling or visualization tools – to add to the pipeline in order to facilitate the decision making process. This topic will be tightly integrated within both the Computational Drug Discovery group as well as the Biomedical and Discovery Engine teams to ensure close alignment of needs and solutions in vue of the druggability assessment process.

This internship provides a unique opportunity to study a fast-growing and important field, with clear applications for drug discovery.

In particular, as your main missions, you will:

  • Collaborate closely with, and receive mentorship from the other members of the R&D team;
  • Contribute to the implementation of an end-to-end automated pipeline for druggability assessment, relying on data sources such as OpenTarget and PubChem and leveraging available APIs and internal solutions;
  • Conduct validation of the automated pipeline in alignment with previous druggability assessment activities and results;
  • Conduct comparative and primary research on possible solutions for extension of the automated assessment pipeline, examples of possible research avenues could be: looking for and evaluating protein 3D structures, extracting patent information, explore solutions for LLM generated result reports, propose visualization modules for the pipeline and gathered data, implementing quality filters for small molecules, etc.;
  • Report your detailed findings and solutions to the group.

Position is based on-site only, in our Paris or Nantes offices.

About you

We are looking for someone who has:

  • MSc year 2+ level in data science / engineering / computational chemistry or related fields;
  • Motivation to work at the intersection of biology and AI
  • Excellence in communication and technical writing
  • Experience in Linux/Unix-like environments, Python and good programming skills
  • Fluent in English (spoken and written)
  • Authorization to work legally in France

And the following would also be beneficial:

  • Participation in data science projects and competitions
  • Fluency with Git and basic software engineering patterns
  • Previous work or projects with large language models or with NLP methods
  • Knowledge in (structural) biology and biochemistry
  • Previous experience with front-end development
  • Contribution to publications in conferences and journals

Please submit your CV in English

#LI-HB1

What we offer

  • Flexible work organization and access to remote work
  • Friendly and informal working environment
  • Opportunity to work with an international team with high technical and scientific backgrounds

Recruitment Process & Security

  • Please complete the form and submit your CV.
  • Owkin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status or on the basis of disability.
  • Owkin is a great place to work. Unfortunately, being a coveted workplace means we are vulnerable to recruitment phishing scams. We urge all job seekers and candidates to be wary of potential scams. Most of these have individuals posing as representatives of prominent companies, including Owkin, with the aim of obtaining personal, sensitive, or financial information from applicants. These scams prey upon an individual’s desire to obtain a job and can sometimes “feel” like a genuine recruitment process. Some red flags are identified below. Should you encounter a recruitment process that claims to be for Owkin but is not consistent with the below, please do not provide any personal or financial information:
  • Legitimate Owkin recruitment processes include communication with candidates through recognized professional networks, such as LinkedIn.
  • Communication is always through an official Owkin email address (from the @owkin.com domain), over the phone or though our applicant tracking system (Greenhouse).
  • The Owkin talent team do use platforms such as LinkedIn and Job Teaser, however if you have any concern or doubt about this contact, please ask for them to send an email from @Owkin.com.
  • The Owkin talent team will not solicit personal data from candidates during the application phase including, but not limited to, date of birth, social security numbers, or bank account information;
  • Legitimate Owkin interviews may be conducted over the phone, in person, or via an approved enterprise videoconferencing service (Google Meets). They will not occur via Signal, Telegram or Messenger
  • Owkin offers of employment are based on merit and only extended once a candidate has interviewed with members of the talent and hiring team. Offers will be extended both verbally and in written format.

If you think that you have been a victim of fraud,