Denali Therapeutics is seeking to hire a Scientist, DMPK, with expertise in drug discovery and early development. Working in collaboration with colleagues in Therapeutic Discovery, Development Sciences, and Clinical Development, the incumbent will help identify and advance lead drug candidates based on contributions related to biotransformation, metabolism enzymology, and pharmacokinetics. The role requires experience and expertise in drug metabolism, and involves execution of hypothesis-driven experiments using high-resolution mass spectrometry instrumentation, interpretation of complex data, and effective communication of results to cross-functional project teams.  The successful candidate will be a key DMPK contributor, with broad impact across a growing organization.

Responsibilities

• Engage Biologists, Chemists, Toxicologists, and the DMPK team to work collectively enabling the advancement of the small molecule and biotherapeutic portfolio
• Apply expertise in drug metabolism to design and conduct studies, and interpret data to assess biotransformation, metabolism enzymology, bioactivation, and metabolism kinetics to guide project teams at stages of drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development
• Integrate data from metabolism studies with in silico, in vitro, PK, PK/PD, toxicology, and clinical data sets to understand in vitro-in vivo correlation, pharmacologically active metabolites, translation to humans, and risk assessment
• Partner with Toxicology to assess relative metabolite exposures in preclinical species and humans for addressing metabolites in safety testing
• Analyze, interpret, summarize and present DMPK data to internal project teams and senior management as a subject matter expert
• Work with external laboratories to further develop biotransformation capability; review/QC data and engage CROs to enhance support of internal programs
• Contribute to writing internal reports and Non-Clinical Pharmacology sections of regulatory (IND/CTA) filings

• PhD in Drug Metabolism, Pharmacokinetics, Chemistry or related scientific discipline with 0-3 years of biotech/pharmaceutical drug discovery and development experience; or BS/MS with 6-10 years of experience
• Expertise in small molecule metabolite identification/structure elucidation and hepatic enzymology required
• Knowledgeable, ideally with hands-on experience, in areas of bioanalysis, in vitro-in vivo translation, drug-drug interaction, or drug transport
• Hands-on experience operating, troubleshooting, and maintaining LC-MS instruments; in particular, method development and high-resolution mass spectrometry to analyze drug and drug metabolites in biological matrices required
• Excellent critical thinking and scientific skills, with a demonstrated ability to generate, interpret, and communicate complex DMPK data
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively and collaboratively with other scientists on cross-functional projects teams
• Excellent oral presentation and written communication skills