Hannah Herzig

AI-designed viruses are coming, and our team @PopVaxIndia is building the Immune Engine to produce medicines against these threats within 4 weeks from sequencing. We're basing this work, led by @hcherzig, in London because of the UK's prescient vision in AI safety & biosecurity. Just as @ukgov were the first government to establish an AI safety & security lab @AISecurityInst, they are now the first government to set up a dedicated organisation to combat the biosecurity risks created by generative AI, which require a different approach than natural threats. We’ve been talking with the team building the AI Biosecurity Lab over the past few weeks, and we’re confident that they’re building an institution that is capable of meeting the enormous challenges that lie ahead. We look forward to working with them to help secure the world against the threat of AI-enabled bioweapons.

Launching RNAFoundry.com – we manufacture personalized cancer vaccines.

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.

This is exactly what @hcherzig and I are working on @PopVaxIndia across the UK, the US, and India! Read more here: chronicles.popvax.com/p/apoc…