Advisor / Senior Advisor, CNS/PNS NAMs – Investigative Toxicology

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated and innovative scientist to join the New Approach Methodologies (NAMs)/Complex In Vitro Models (CIVMs) pillar within Lilly’s Investigative Toxicology group. This individual contributor, primarily laboratory-based role sits within an integrated group where in vitro and in vivo safety science are united under a single leadership, enabling seamless translational science across the drug discovery continuum.

Responsibilities

• Develop, qualify, and apply advanced human-relevant in vitro models for CNS/PNS liability assessment, including iPSC-derived neurons and glial cells, co-culture systems, organoids/assembloids, dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neuron models, and BBB models to detect and characterize compound-induced neural injury across Lilly’s portfolio.
• Design and implement mechanistic investigations into compound-induced CNS/PNS liabilities including excitotoxicity, seizurogenic activity, demyelination, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, axonopathy, and BBB integrity disruption.
• Implement functional MEAs and/or FLIPR calcium flux assays as primary liability readouts for seizurogenic potential, ion channel perturbation, and neural network activity disruption; qualify novel assays and endpoints that improve the sensitivity, specificity, throughput, and translational relevance of CNS/PNS liability screening.
• Develop deep scientific expertise in CNS/PNS liability science and serve as a key scientific resource for project teams by designing/performing in vitro follow-on investigations to understand mechanism of toxicity and species translatability.
• Collaborate with Lilly’s in silico ADMET Intelligence group to integrate computational CNS/PNS liability predictions with in vitro mechanistic data, contributing to coherent and tiered safety decision frameworks for project teams.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend platforms for adoption that meaningfully strengthen the human relevance of Lilly’s CNS/PNS safety science.
• Independently review primary literature to generate mechanistic hypotheses and design in vitro studies to test them.
• Serve as scientific point of contact for CRO and academic partners conducting CNS/PNS NAMs work on Lilly’s behalf, overseeing study design, data quality, and deliverable standards.
• Participate in pre-competitive consortia and industry working groups advancing CNS/PNS NAMs and early safety science.
• Publish peer-reviewed research and present findings at national and international scientific meetings.

Requirements

• PhD in Neuroscience, Neurotoxicology, Pharmacology, Biomedical Engineering, Cell Biology, or a closely related discipline.
• Advisor: PhD with 2+ years of postdoctoral or industry research experience with direct hands-on work in advanced neural in vitro models.
• Senior Advisor: PhD with 5+ years of postdoctoral or industry research experience with a demonstrated track record of independent scientific contribution, model qualification, and leadership.
• Direct, hands-on experience with at least one of the following:
• (1) iPSC-derived neural cell model development/optimization (neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, or mixed co-cultures) applied to liability or mechanistic safety questions;
• (2) MEA/FLIPR-based functional neurotoxicity or seizurogenic liability assessment;
• (3) in vitro BBB model development used to characterize barrier disruption or neuroinflammatory liabilities;
• (4) 3D brain organoid/assembloid systems for compound-induced injury profiling.
• Experience independently design and execute rigorous experiments, manage concurrent projects, and prioritize under drug discovery timelines.

Additional Skills / Preferences

• Experience with transcriptomic profiling and/or high-content imaging to define mechanism-of-injury signatures in CNS/PNS models and support human translational risk interpretation.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, evidenced by peer-reviewed publications and/or conference presentations.
• Ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, cross-functional drug discovery team environment.
• Knowledge of oligonucleotide delivery platforms and their associated neurotoxicity liabilities is a plus.
• Experience with neuroinflammation models or microglial biology in a safety context is also a plus.
• Experience mentoring junior scientists or leading project-embedded scientific activities.