Scientist / Senior Scientist, Insect Biology and Bioassays
About the role
Lead insect biology and bioassay development at Molagri to test VLP delivery, payload expression, and bioinsecticidal activity in pest insects; build and manage insect-cell and whole-insect assays, coordinate with CROs, and generate quantitative data to guide product advancement.
Responsibilities
- Develop insect-cell assays for particle uptake, RNA delivery, payload expression, and payload activity.
- Develop whole-insect bioassays for oral delivery, dose response, potency, speed of kill, growth inhibition, feeding inhibition, and species selectivity.
- Establish assays in target pest species and relevant non-target insects.
- Design studies with appropriate controls, dose ranges, replication, endpoints, acceptance criteria, and statistical analysis.
- Build workflows connecting insect-cell data to oral activity and whole-insect potency.
- Run insect bioassays internally where appropriate and manage outsourced studies with CRO partners.
- Write CRO protocols, select assay formats, review raw data, and troubleshoot inconsistent or low-quality bioassay results.
- Partner with virology and protein engineering teammates to interpret failures in binding, uptake, delivery, payload expression, and potency.
- Maintain SOPs, assay records, and data packages that support VLP and payload progression.
Qualifications
- PhD in entomology, insect physiology, insect pathology, insect molecular biology, or a related field.
- Direct experience developing or testing bioinsecticides (peptide/protein insecticides, insect viruses, RNAi actives, Bt, microbial insecticides, or related biological crop-protection products).
- Hands-on experience with insect bioassays (diet overlay, oral droplet feeding, leaf-disc assays, topical application, injection, or plant-based feeding assays).
- Experience with agricultural pest species and practical insect handling, staging, scoring, and assay reproducibility.
- Strong experimental design skills for dose-response studies, mortality scoring, sublethal phenotypes, positive/negative controls, and assay acceptance criteria.
- Working knowledge of insect cell culture, insect pathology, insect midgut biology, receptor-mediated uptake, RNAi, or host-pathogen interactions.
- Ability to analyze and interpret bioassay data and communicate clear technical recommendations.
- Ability to manage CRO studies without treating outsourced work as a black box.
- Excitement to work at the bench as part of a small technical team.
Skills
About Molagri
Biopesticides that are safe for humans and bees.
Molagri develops safer, more effective pesticides for agriculture. We design biopesticides that hit a precise molecular target unique to pest insects, knocking out pests while sparing pollinators, beneficial insects, and the wider ecosystem. By modeling how pests are likely to evolve, we stay a step ahead of resistance, keeping our products effective against the pests of today and tomorrow. The higher efficacy and biobased production will also contribute to emissions reductions in both manufacturing and field use. Our founders are PhD lab mates from the University of Toronto who have worked together for six years and published in Nature Communications and Nature Microbiology.
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