Avian Scientist - Reproductive/Breeding

About Neion Bio

Neion Bio is harnessing nature’s best molecular factory, the chicken egg, to make medicine affordable, accessible, and resilient. We turn farms into medicine factories using cutting edge genetic engineering and stem cell technology. These “living bioreactors” are fully autonomous 3D biomolecular printers that operate on existing industrial-scale infrastructure. Our platform can rapidly and scalably produce almost any protein, provide national resilience to drug shortages and de-risk complex supply chains, and ultimately take advantage of novel biological environments to solve unmet medical needs. Biomanufacturing, reinvented. Medicine, democratized. 

Role Summary

We are seeking an avian scientist who will lead Neion’s reproductive and breeding program across multiple species. This role involves hands-on care and handling of chickens and quail throughout their lifecycle, with a focus on reproductive biology in poultry, including AI, breeding and hatching, as well as additional aspects of avian veterinary care for chickens and quail. Candidates must be proficient in avian semen collection and analyses and comfortable performing AI in chickens; In addition, the ideal candidate will have experience with cryopreservation and be comfortable working in the lab as well as with animals.  

Key Responsibilities

• Aviculture: Must be comfortable safely handling chickens and quail in a research setting. Requires working with small flocks at all stages of development from egg collection, incubation to successful hatching and growth. Must be able to safely restrain chicks and adults to collect and process samples, and ensure delivery of viable samples 
• Avian Breeding (Poultry): Help manage and biobank small transgenic chicken and quail flocks through natural cover, cryopreservation of semen and AI. Requires routine egg collection, incubation, hatching, sexing, and ensuring the integrity of genotyping
• Programmatic Support: Ensure the viable biobanking of all of Neion’s transgenic lines. Work with managers and teams to optimize mating workflows and ensure model transfer between sites
• Culture of Care: Contribute to ensuring the health and environmental, nutritional and social enrichment of our flocks, and provide preventative and interventional vet care 
• Biosecurity: Must be comfortable operating in a shower in facility, wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and observing strict standard operating protocols (SOPs) to protect avian health
• Record Keeping: Maintain timely and accurate animal electronic records to ensure provenance and tracking of every animal and sample
• Regulatory Compliance: Help to ensure that research areas and records meet and exceed IACUC inspection compliance

Requirements

• PhD in Poultry Science, Avian Biology, or related field, or equivalent industry experience and knowledgebase. Experience providing high volume hands-on animal care in a research, small animal clinical, farm or zoological setting is critical, including direct hands-on avian experience 
• Extensive experience performing avian semen collection, AI and cryopreservation, as well as successfully incubating hatching eggs and raising chicks to adulthood
• Extreme attention to detail is critical, as well as strict compliance with SOPs and are followed and documented
• Ability to operate with quiet confidence and competence, individually and as part of a team to promote Neion Bio’s culture of care

Benefits

Compensation: base salary is expected to be $80-120K depending on experience, with additional bonus compensation, equity compensation, and benefits including health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, 401(k), and relocation support.