Raven StealthCo - Associate Scientist, In Vitro Pharmacology and Assay Development

About Raven: We are Raven, RA Capital’s healthcare incubator. From discovery to delivery, whether we incubate, accelerate or rejuvenate, Raven’s goal is to turn scientific breakthroughs into transformative therapies and get them quickly, safely and efficiently to the patients that need them most. Raven’s experienced scientists, operators, and healthcare innovators have deep sector expertise across therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and services. They have brought hundreds of therapeutics into development, managed hospital systems, optimized clinical trials and navigated payor and regulatory systems to deliver patient impact - and they are ready to work with you. About RA Capital: Founded in 2004, RA Capital Management is a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to evidence-based investing in public and private healthcare, life sciences, and planetary health companies. RA Capital creates and funds innovative companies, from private seed rounds to public follow-on financings, allowing management teams to drive value creation from inception through commercialization and beyond. RA Capital's knowledge engine is guided by our TechAtlas internal research division, and Raven, RA Capital’s company building team, offers entrepreneurs and innovators a collaborative and comprehensive platform to explore the novel and the re-imagined. RA Capital has more than 150 employees and over $10 billion in assets under management. Company Background We are a well-funded, stealth-mode biotechnology focused on next generation oligo-based modalities targeting tissues beyond the liver, muscle, and kidney. We are building a platform to deliver oligos with high precision to previously untargeted cells, while focused on “undruggable” genes, alone or in combination with previously validated targets. Many of our targets carry "pipeline-in-a-drug" potential: a single gene or protein with meaningful biological effects across multiple disease areas. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company was incubated in RA Capital’s venture group (Raven) and is led by an experienced CEO. After a robust incubation and vetting process, Raven StealthCo was launched and funded by RA Capital. The company’s therapeutic areas of interest lie outside commonly targeted cells and tissues, and represent multi-billion-dollar markets that are continuing to grow as the population ages. Our initial focus is creating transformational therapies to treat diseases, but given the platform potential, we have longer-term ambitions to address healthy aging. These targets are backed by strong biological and genetic evidence but have historically resisted small molecule and biologic approaches. Raven StealthCo is moving quickly to address multiple disease indications at scale and with significant market potential. Opportunity We are in the discovery stage and will invest heavily in our emerging platform for oligonucleotide delivery. Our disease focus offers strong translatability from animal models to humans, which provides a potentially rapid and efficient path to the clinic. Given our recent funding and commitment to building a first-in-class platform, we are recruiting Associate Scientist In Vitro Pharmacology and Assay Development to help build and run the in vitro pharmacology engine (target ID and pathway validation, oligonucleotide profiling, and mechanism-of-action work) and to execute the ex vivo analyses that turn our externalized in vivo studies into interpretable results. The Position The Associate Scientist reports to the Director of Biology and Pharmacology and works closely with delivery, conjugation chemistry, and analytical colleagues. This lab-based role spans two capabilities the company cannot advance without: a rigorous in vitro pharmacology engine (physiologically relevant primary and stem-cell-derived models, oligonucleotide screening, mechanism-of-action work), and hands-on support of our externalized in vivo pharmacology, executing the ex vivo analyses on samples returning from CRO-run studies in partnership with the in vivo pharmacology lead. The two are connected by deep molecular biology, biochemistry, and -omics fluency, and as programs move toward development, translational biomarker work grows more central. As a founding member of the scientific team, this person helps build the lab and define how our core assays run. First-year priorities are clear: stand up cell culture, bring the CRO-run cell-based screening in-house, and establish the tissue-processing and ex vivo readouts our programs depend on. Specific responsibilities include: Stand up the company’s cell culture from the ground up: primary and stem-cell-derived cells, directed differentiation, and readouts of maturation and functional states Design, develop, and run reproducible in vitro assays for oligonucleotides and conjugates, quantifying target engagement and PD effect across delivery formats (RT-qPCR, digital PCR, branched-DNA, immunoassays) and characterizing dose–response for conjugate optimization Build an assay toolkit for deeper hit profiling, including uptake, internalization, and trafficking assays for conjugate-mediated delivery Establish tissue-processing techniques and the ex vivo PD and efficacy analyses supporting in vivo studies (including RNA and protein extraction from difficult tissues); run the readouts on returning CRO samples and contribute to the ex vivo analytical plan up front With analytical chemistry, who lead bioanalytical method development for oligonucleotide and conjugate quantitation, deliver the tissue-exposure and biodistribution data anchoring PK/PD interpretation In line with the team’s biomarker strategy, develop and implement assays for translational biomarkers that track PD effect, target engagement, and early efficacy into development Bring in new methods, technologies, and vendors where existing approaches fall short, and operationalize methods once established: robust, docum