PopVax's first vaccine entered a Phase I clinical trial on August 31. We're following this up with an ambitious pipeline of vaccines (HCV, TB, Strep A, rabies) and cancer therapeutics (liver & pancreatic cancer). Come help us develop new medicines to save 1 million lives each year! Here are some key open positions: Principal Scientist - Analytical Method Development (jobs.popvax.com/30208) and Senior Scientist - HPLC Method Development (jobs.popvax.com/41508): We design millions of new molecules – proteins, RNA, LNPs, and more. Your job is to figure out how to characterize them at high-throughput without sacrificing rigour, repeatability, and robustness, as well as to help make those methods GMP-grade as part of the handover to QC. We intend to take new medicines into clinical trials in weeks, not years, so we need to build adaptable analytical platforms, not bespoke methods that work for only one molecule. We strongly prefer candidates with the ability to write code to build automated data analysis pipelines for their methods – LLM-generated code is fine as long as you are able to comprehensively validate the logic and output of the pipelines. Head of Quality Control (jobs.popvax.com/41525) – We manufacture our own clinical doses at the RNA Foundry, and every analytical method we develop for a new molecule eventually has to become a validated QC method. You’ll lead the team that tests every batch to international GMP standards, take on method transfers from analytical development, and build a QC function that can keep pace with a pipeline aiming to reach the clinic in weeks, not years. Junior Scientist - Vaccine Immunology (jobs.popvax.com/37003) – Our vaccine programs halt or advance on the immunogenicity data that comes back from animal and organoid studies. You’ll run the assays that produce that data – ELISAs, pseudovirus neutralization, and bacterial growth-inhibition assays – and coordinate animal studies with our internal teams and CROs, following each study from plan to samples to result. We prefer candidates who can write code for routine data analysis. Head of Legal (jobs.popvax.com/41524) – Our first vaccine was manufactured in India, was filled into vials in the US, and has now entered a clinical trial in Australia. We work with dozens of counterparties – funders, governments, universities, CROs, and suppliers – with more added each week. You’ll own the day-to-day of our Indian legal work, from contracts to compliance to labour law, work with the legal teams supporting our UK and Australian operations, and make sure paperwork is never the bottleneck between our new medicines and the clinic. Chief of Staff to the Chief Science Officer: Our CSO needs a partner who can take experimental planning and coordination off his plate so that he can spend more time thinking hard about our thorniest problems. You will turn complex scientific hypotheses into clear executable plans, coordinate with scientists to see each experiment through, and analyze the data to help plan the next round of iteration. You’ll need a strong scientific background, a sharp eye for detail, and boundless energy to keep ambitious scientific work moving. To apply, email dhruv [at] popvax [dot] com with a human-written explanation of why you’re the best person for the job. If none of these are a good fit, take a look popvax.com/jobs or email us at work [at] popvax [dot] com.

P.S. AI protein design gets the headlines. Whether the thing in the tube is actually what you designed gets decided by analytical methods. My team at @PopVaxIndia is hiring an analytical scientist for protein characterisation (SEC-HPLC) jobs.popvax.com/41532

On August 31, the first two participants were injected with @PopVaxIndia’s first fridge-stable RNA vaccine candidate in a Phase I clinical trial in Australia. We built this vaccine at our RNA Foundry in Hyderabad – from computational design to GMP manufacturing. Here's how:

I am hiring a talented and tasteful full-stack filmmaker for a three-month fellowship @PopVaxIndia, full-time in Hyderabad, to help the world imagine what the future of medicine will look like in our new world of abundant intelligence. We think medicine will be increasingly personalized and preventative, and the mechanics of healthcare will have to be entirely transformed to make that possible. A lot of this will look more like making science fiction than producing launch videos, though there will be some of that as well. I'm looking for someone who is as comfortable shooting and editing a short film entirely in real life as they are generating it entirely with AI, with the ability to seamlessly embed the one medium in the other. If this is you, email me at film [at] popvax dot com with a few samples, ideally both writing and video. This is a paid position, and it has the potential (but not the requirement) to convert to a long-term role if there is mutual alignment. My brother @SahajSankaran and I write and direct a little on the side -- see youtube.com/@honestyontape -- so, for better or worse, I will be quite opinionated about what we put out. If this goes well, it will be a deep and fulfilling collaboration on all aspects of the creative process, from the writing to the final cut. I should have done this a long time ago (many such cases). This will be a lot of fun! @pbshgthm @ashleevance @oshosidhant @anupamsidhant @pavlikam @ABiggerSpalash @neervj @neilshroff @sidin

AI allows us to design & develop life-saving medicines in months, yet India takes a year to approve clinical trials – Australia & China take weeks. Honoured to co-write an op-ed in @EconomicTimes with @KiranShaw on decentralising our trial framework to accelerate Indian biotech.

PopVax (@PopVaxIndia) is one of India’s most important biotech startups. They're developing vaccines to fight Hep C, Strep A, TB, influenza, HPV, and malaria, as well as cancer immunotherapies against tumours like liver/pancreatic cancer. Here's their RNA Foundry in Hyderabad.

I'm excited to announce that @PopVaxIndia & @_lagrangepoint are hosting a mixer in Bangalore on Wednesday, July 6, for people building deep tech in India, especially in robotics, machine learning, and biotech. Come and say hi! blr.popvax.com @itsarnavb @pbshgthm