Postdoctoral Scientist - Neurodegeneration

At Lilly, the work is demanding because patients are waiting. We unite caring with discovery to help make life better for people around the world, knowing that every decision, every detail, and every day matters. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe take on complex challenges to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve.

About the role

This postdoctoral position within Lilly Neuroscience NGTx—a pre-clinical development team based at the Seaport Innovation Center in Boston—will extend the established tri-culture system into disease-relevant pathological contexts, creating a pharmacologically responsive platform for compound assessment in neurodegeneration.

Responsibilities

• Establish seed and preformed fibril (PFF)-based pathology models in the iPSC tri-culture system for multiple amyloid forming proteins, characterizing seeding efficiency, aggregate formation, and timing parameters for each.
• Perform systematic mono- vs. co- vs. tri-culture comparisons to quantify the multicellular gain in neurotoxicity and neuroinflammatory responses across culture configurations.
• Characterize microglial activation and cytokine release profiles (multiplex MSD cytokine profiling) and neurotoxicity in response to pathological insults.
• Execute a systematic species-ranking study comparing aggregate forms of amyloid forming proteins (monomers, oligomers, and fibrillar preparations) for neurotoxic and neuroinflammatory potency in the human multicellular context.
• Evaluate publishable tool compounds (siRNAs, antibodies) and internal proprietary compounds for potency, cellular uptake, and safety in healthy vs. pathological tri-culture.
• Generate paired healthy vs. disease-context datasets to directly compare compound behavior, providing decision-support data for LRL neurodegeneration programs.
• Publish as first author and present findings at internal and external forums.

Requirements

• PhD in Neuroscience, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with iPSC culture and/or primary neuron culture systems.
• Prior experience with in vitro neurodegenerative disease modeling, including PFF seeding, protein aggregation assays, or amyloid forming protein biology.
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role.

Skills

• Experience with neuronal co- or tri-culture systems incorporating glia (astrocytes and/or microglia).
• Proficiency in high-content imaging, immunofluorescence (ICC-IF), and image analysis pipelines.
• Prior work with neuroinflammation assays, including multiplex cytokine profiling (e.g., MSD, Luminex).
• Experience with CNS therapeutic modality assessment (siRNAs, antibodies, or small molecules in cell-based assays).
• Proven ability to independently design, execute, and troubleshoot multi-parametric cell-based experiments.
• Demonstrated scientific productivity, including peer-reviewed publications.
• Strong collaborative instincts and interest in translational drug discovery in an industry setting.

Benefits

• Eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k) and pension.
• Vacation benefits.
• Medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits.
• Flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts).
• Life insurance and death benefits.
• Certain time off and leave of absence benefits.
• Well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).
• Company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance).

Pay

The anticipated wage for this position is $58,000 - $123,200.

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities actively engage in the workforce. Employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).