Micropep is a French biotech firm developing the next generation of biological crop protection solutions based on the incredible potential of micropeptides; short natural peptide molecules that target and regulate plant genes and proteins.
The company’s proprietary discovery platform blends artificial intelligence, computer science, plant biology and peptide biochemistry to select and produce the best micropeptide candidates amongst billions. Its current pipeline targets resistant pathogens and weeds threatening major crops throughout the world.
The company was founded in 2016 as a spin-off of “LRSV”, a Plant Research Laboratory at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Toulouse University, a center of excellence in AgriTech. After an initial $5m Seed funding round in 2018, the company closed a $10m Series A in 2021 with prominent European and US investors.
Missions
We are currently looking for a data-science researcher with experience in biology-related problems to develop predictive models with the goal of improving peptide design.
Under the responsibility of the peptide design platform manager, you will be responsible for:
· Developing predictive models to be integrated in various pipelines including peptide design
· Implementing and deploying models in our cloud-computing architecture
· Provide expert knowledge related to state-of-the-art Machine Learning models
· Contributing to curating and maintaining our data warehouse
· Contributing to exploratory analyses of data to explore for patterns and trends from past studies, and to provide insight into how to better design peptides
Profil
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
· PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, chemo-informatics, mathematics or computer science
· Hands-on experience in developing machine and/or deep-learning models for biological systems
· Experience with biological data, in particular omics data
· Experience with managing a data warehouse and working with large amounts of data
· Familiarity with SQL and/or NoSQL database technologies, ideally experience in database design
· Experience in drug discovery and/or peptide design is greatly appreciated
· Prior use of high-performance computing to train machine learning algorithms is appreciated
REQUIRED TECHNICAL SKILLS
· Programming: OOP and scripting in python
· Proficiency in using Linux operating system and the command-line
· Proficiency in using a version-management system like git
· Theoretical knowledge of main machine learning algorithms
· Knowledge and good experience of main machine learning frameworks (scikit-learn, keras…)
· Understanding of protein language models is highly appreciated
DESIRED COMPETENCIES
· Good organization skills and good optimization of the working environment
· Ability to manage multiple projects and overlapping deadlines
· Natural ability for problem-solving
· Good communication skills, both written and verbal (English mandatory)
· Autonomy
· Rigor
CONDITIONS
· Friendly working environment
· Flexible working environment, with partial homeworking
· Compensation: based on experience
· End of application: July 2022
· Permanent contract
· Location: Auzeville Tolosane, France
· To know more about Micropep, check our website: micro-pep.com
Applications (CV, cover letters and optional references) must be sent with the reference 2022-06/DSN-ML.