Associate Director/Director, Bioinformatics

Acrivon is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision oncology medicines that it matches to patients whose tumors are predicted to be sensitive to each specific medicine by utilizing Acrivon’s proprietary proteomics-based patient responder identification platform, Acrivon Predictive Precision Proteomics, or AP3. The AP3 platform is engineered to measure compound-specific effects on the entire tumor cell protein signaling network and drug-induced resistance mechanisms in an unbiased manner. These distinctive capabilities enable AP3’s direct application for drug design optimization for monotherapy activity, the identification of rational drug combinations, and the creation of drug-specific proprietary OncoSignature companion diagnostics that are used to identify the patients most likely to benefit from Acrivon’s drug candidates.

Acrivon is currently advancing its lead candidate, ACR-368 (also known as prexasertib), a selective small molecule inhibitor targeting CHK1 and CHK2 in a potentially registrational Phase 2 trial across multiple tumor types. The company has received Fast Track designation from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the investigation of ACR-368 as monotherapy based on OncoSignature-predicted sensitivity in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian or endometrial cancer. Acrivon’s ACR-368 OncoSignature test, which has not yet obtained regulatory approval, has been extensively evaluated in preclinical studies, including in two separate, blinded, prospectively-designed studies on pretreatment tumor biopsies collected from past third-party Phase 2 trials in patients with ovarian cancer treated with ACR-368.  The company has reported initial positive clinical data from its ongoing registrational-intent Phase 2b trial of ACR-368 for patients with locally advanced or metastatic, recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer or endometrial adenocarcinoma (data cut as of April 1, 2024), including a confirmed ORR (per RECIST 1.1) of 50% in the prospective cohort of OncoSignature-positive patients who were efficacy-evaluable. The FDA has granted Breakthrough Device designation for the ACR-368 OncoSignature assay for the identification of ovarian cancer patients who may benefit from ACR-368 treatment. In addition to ACR-368, Acrivon is also leveraging its proprietary AP3 precision medicine platform for developing its co-crystallography-driven, internally-discovered preclinical stage pipeline programs. These include ACR-2316, a potent, selective WEE1/PKMYT1 inhibitor designed for superior single-agent activity as demonstrated in preclinical studies against benchmark inhibitors, and a cell cycle program with an undisclosed target.

Our global team operates out of two leading life science clusters, Watertown, MA and Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden.

Position Overview:

The Associate Director/Director, Bioinformatics within the Data Science team will play a key role in applying bioinformatics and computational biology expertise to drive innovative solutions for drug discovery and development, leveraging our AP3 platform.  We are seeking an accomplished professional with a demonstrated record of integrating multi-omics data and computational methodologies to generate actionable biological insights. These insights should encompass target identification and validation, elucidation of mechanisms of action, exploration of therapeutic indications, and biomarker discovery. This role is based in Watertown, MA.

 Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead computational workstreams for analyzing and interpreting multi-omics data, especially proteomics, with the aim of identifying biomarkers, elucidating mechanism of action, prioritizing indications, and exploring targets.
• Drive the implementation of advanced AI/ML approaches and knowledge graph databases to enhance data interpretation and decision-making processes.
• Identify emerging trends and technologies in bioinformatics, MS-proteomics and AI/ML approaches and integrate these advancements to the data science’s workflows and pipeline.
• Contribute to integration of internal and external data, ensuring the bioinformatics infrastructure is robust, scalable, and secure to handle large-scale data analyses.
• Foster collaboration with other functions and communicate effectively to share scientific analyses and concepts.

Qualifications include:

• PhD. or M.S. in Bioinformatics, Computational biology, Engineering, Computer Sciences, or a related field.
• Demonstrated track record of 8+ years in applying bioinformatics or computational biology methodologies within an industry environment.
• Deep understanding of bioinformatics tools, databases, and software, particularly in the context of MS-proteomics and AI/ML applications.
• Hands on experience in developing computational workflows and conducting data analyses for multi-omics datasets, with a particular emphasis on proteomics.
• Strong programming skills in languages such as Python and R, alongside proficiency in other scripting languages.
• Hands on experience with data integration techniques and devising relational database schema for managing, storing, and retrieving large-scale biological data.
• Extensive experience in the oncology therapeutic area, including familiarity with cancer biology and treatment modalities.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publication.
• Team player with ability to nurture productive collaborative relationship with internal and external partner.

Acrivon Therapeutics is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Acrivon Therapeutics complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.