Medicine Design Industrial Placement Programme 2022

Want to solve some of the world’s biggest health challenges? 

With over 300 years of innovation, we’re a science-led global healthcare company that discovers, develops and manufactures innovative medicines and vaccines. Our industrial placements are real roles with real responsibility, where you can gain experience in a purpose-led, performance-driven healthcare business. Join us and help millions of people do more, feel better, live longer.

GSK are a science-led global healthcare company that researches and develops innovative Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines products. Our challenging and inspiring mission is to enable people to do more, feel better and live longer by developing innovative products and improving access to healthcare for patients around the world.

Whatever the role, you will experience working in a fast-paced research environment with access to cutting edge technology, whilst interacting with industry-leading scientists across multiple disciplines and sharing different experiences. During the internship, you will be supported and given training (laboratory and office practices, where applicable) until confident to work independently - with a focus on GSK health and safety requirements.  You will be enrolled in GSK internal courses to develop your knowledge of company policy and for your personal development including opportunities to attend seminars led by GSK scientists and networking opportunities.

Role 1: New Chemical Entity (NCE) Molecular Discovery  

The NCE Molecular Discovery department drives the discovery of novel small molecule drug candidates.   The department comprises biochemists, cell biologists, chemical biologists and data scientists who develop and apply an array of in vitro technologies. Our research determines the impact of novel compounds on protein targets and in biological disease models, to enable their development towards producing new medicines.  

We are seeking enthusiastic individuals with passion and flair for practical work to support our current efforts in drug discovery. During your placement you will receive training within our state-of-the-art facilities in Stevenage and gain experience working within a big pharmaceutical company. We can offer exposure to a range of research techniques including advanced robotics technology; automated electrophysiology; high content imaging; mass spectrometry; in vitro pharmacology and enzymology, with an aim to deliver key biological assay data. Successful applicants will be supported within multi-disciplinary teams where they will contribute directly to active drug discovery projects.

Role 2: Protein and Cellular Sciences (PCS)  

Protein and Cellular Sciences (PCS) is an early stage drug discovery department within GSK, which uses advanced technologies to generate and validate protein and cell-based reagents in support of both small molecule and biopharmaceutical programs. Vectors are designed and produced using a range of molecular biology and genetic engineering techniques (gene cloning, DNA sequencing, PCR), and expression carried out using bacterial and mammalian cell culture systems (e.coli, HEK transient, CHO stable). Proteins are purified using appropriate chromatographic techniques in conjunction with programmable purification platforms (affinity, ion-exchange, size exclusion chromatography), and characterised using state-of-the-art analytical tools (mass spectroscopy, electrophoresis, reversed phase chromatography).

We are seeking to recruit undergraduate students with both an enthusiasm for protein biochemistry and cell biology, and an aptitude for practical work. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to participate in a diverse variety of ground-breaking research projects ongoing within the group, and to acquire extensive practical experience of many laboratory techniques commonly in use throughout the biochemical and pharmaceutical industry. The placement will also provide an opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the drug discovery process within an industrial environment.

Role 3: Structural & Biophysical Sciences 

Structural & Biophysical Sciences (SBS) focuses on early stage small molecule and antibody drug discovery using state-of-the-art technologies, such as X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry and surface plasmon resonance as part of therapeutic program teams at GSK.

SBS is a team of about a 15 people, ranging from experienced researchers with decades of drug discovery expertise, to early career scientists yet to complete their PhD/BSc studies. As individuals we enjoy a challenge, but we also love working as a team. Our aim is to solve complex questions, which often require us to use everyone’s talents. Thus, we work closely together and with colleagues from other departments such as computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry and biology. We are seeking enthusiastic students with an aptitude for problem solving, good attention to detail and a keen interest in science to join our group for a year. The roles are primarily laboratory based although computational competence and experience in scientific software such as Excel, Graphpad, R, Coot, Pymol, etc is desirable.

Role 4: Data Science/Machine Learning for Molecular Design 

The Computational Sciences department at GSK Stevenage has an opportunity for an Industrial Placement student to join our team. We work in close collaboration with our R&D colleagues to apply computational techniques to discover better and safer medicines for patients. We have a diverse range of expertise, from machine learning to cheminformatics, bioinformatics and molecular simulation.

We use modern machine learning to build predictive models for use in drug discovery and generative models to propose novel molecular structures which are predicted to solve problems encountered by our drug design teams. You will be involved in the implementation and evaluation of novel methods, which add to our already extensive toolbox. For this role you should have a good knowledge of basic statistics and a strong interest in data science/machine learning. Some knowledge of chemistry would be advantageous and familiarity with a programming language such as Python is preferable. You should be thorough in the way you work and pay attention to detail. You will be able to plan and organise your own work and work independently, as well as in a team environment. Ability to follow projects through to completion is also needed. Good communication and interpersonal skills are essential.

This is a computational role and will not involve any laboratory work. 

Role 5: Biopharm Discovery  

At GSK we believe that Biopharm medicines are key to achieving our ambitions in immuno-oncology and immunologically driven diseases. Our UK-based Biopharm Discovery team are building a state-of-the-art end to end Biopharm capability which delivers efficient discovery of antibody molecules that are selected and engineered for rapid development. Together with our therapy area partners, GSK Biopharm are discovering, developing and manufacturing novel medicines to benefit patients around the globe. 

Within the Discovery department there are several vacancies for industrial placement students. These vacancies are ideally suited to undergraduate science students keen on exploring and developing a lab-based scientific career in an exciting and fast-paced environment using cutting edge science.

• You should be an enthusiastic team player, communicative, self-motivated and have some experience in laboratory science. Ideal applicants will have some prior understanding and a desire to develop their careers and skills further in at least one of the following specialities: Molecular Biology; Cell Biology; Immunology or Protein Biochemistry.  
• You will be offered a role to complement your academic studies with hands on training in a variety of laboratory techniques. On your placement you could be, for example, working on technology development to aid Biopharm Discovery processes or performing routine screening assays and generating decision making data on potential therapeutic molecules. 
• You will gain an excellent understanding of the drug discovery process across different scientific areas and gain invaluable experience working in a strong team environment within a state-of-the-art and world-leading R&D Facility. 

Multiple roles available. Please read below about the positions we are recruiting for, when you apply you will be able to select 3 preferences. We will accommodate your preference where possible. 

Degree requirements

You will have completed a minimum of 2 years of your undergraduate degree; but will not have graduated at the start of your placement. You may be expected to provide evidence from your university to show you will be an undergraduate student for the duration of the placement year and they are supportive of your placement.

Must be currently undertaking a Life Sciences degree. This includes, but is not limited to, Biological Sciences, Biochemical Engineering, Biomedical Science, Pharmacology, Biotechnology, Chemistry or Physics. In addition, Maths and Data Science related degrees are acceptable for the Data Science/Machine Learning position.

Benefits

• A salary of £21,000, plus a bonus. 
• Access to GSK resources such as employee assistance programmes, private healthcare, and training and development. 

Application deadline: We recommend you apply as soon as possible, because we accept ongoing applications and will close this vacancy once we have enough applications.  

For Industrial Placements that involve lab-based work, working with human biological samples the student must be Hepatitis B vaccinated to work within these labs. Hepatitis B vaccination is entirely voluntary.  If you decide not to be vaccinated, your decision will be fully respected.  You will be given appropriate project work, but would not be able to work with human biological samples.  It’s critical we follow the appropriate health and safety guidelines to all employees safe.

We’re 100% open to all talent 

We’re 100% open to all talent – whatever your gender, marital status, religion, age, colour, race, sexual orientation, nationality or disability. We want to recruit the right people for GSK from the widest possible backgrounds, so we can better serve the diversity of our patients and consumers. And also because it’s the right thing to do. 

You can learn more about Inclusion and diversity at GSK here.

Need help with your application?

Please email us at  UK.InternRecruitment@gsk.com and let us know how we can help you. Or email us your number and we’ll call you back. We’ll make all reasonable modifications to support you throughout the recruitment process and we’ll treat all information you give us in confidence. Please get in touch to help us process your application as soon as possible.