CLEANCARD.INC

About the start-up

 

Cleancard is developing a 30-minute rapid test for cancer that is as easy to use as a pregnancy test. Our lead product in development is an at-home urinary test for bladder cancer. Cleancard is a SF-based interdisciplinary team of 10 leading scientists, biomedical engineers, and computer scientists united around the mission of improving cancer diagnostics.

 

The program, in collaboration with Cleancard, offers one student the opportunity to work on one of two available projects (see below). Only one applicant will be selected.

  • Project Description:
    This project will involve the discovery of novel urinary biomarkers for bladder cancer through analysis of next-generation sequencing datasets. You will have access to our proprietary urinary NGS datasets as well as external datasets (e.g. TCGA), and will work closely with an experienced bioinformatics mentor (our CSO) to design and implement biomarker discovery workflows. The end output of this project would be to prioritize a list of novel urinary nucleic acid biomarkers for bladder cancer, with potential for publication and use in our products.

    You will have the opportunity to work with additional mentors and projects as desired, including using ML to model multiplexed/timeseries biomarker data for improved diagnostic performance, and designing computer vision workflows to quantify Cleancard’s colorimetric assays.

    About the Candidate:
    Our preferred candidate would work in bioinformatics, computer science/ML, molecular biology, clinical research, or a related field. Candidates should be driven by the mission of improving cancer diagnostics and have at least a basic understanding of coding (Linux and one of Python or R).

    Primary Responsibility

    • Analysis of NGS (e.g. RNA-seq) datasets and differential expression for biomarker discovery

    • Integration of findings with public datasets

    Pluses:

    • Experience with RNA-sequencing alignment and differential expression software (e.g. DESeq2, STAR, Salmon)

    • Experience with bioinformatics pipeline management (e.g. Snakemake, Nextflow)

  • Project Description:
    This project will involve the expression and screening of novel diagnostic CRISPR-Cas enzymes in recombinant protein systems (e.g. E. coli). You will work closely with our CSO to optimize expression and purification conditions, and to set up activity screens to identify active enzymes.

    You will also have the opportunity to work on additional projects/mentors as desired, including working with computer scientists to design novel/modified enzymes, and with wet lab mentors to optimize assay development for our diagnostic offerings.

    About the Candidate:
    Our preferred candidate would work in molecular biology, structural biology, protein chemistry/enzymology, or a related field. Candidates should be driven by the mission of improving cancer diagnostics and have some experience with recombinant expression and/or enzymatic activity assays.

    Primary Responsibilities:

    • Design, expression, and purification of recombinant enzymes

    • Screening of enzymes for activity using fluorometric assays and/or PAGE gels

    Pluses:

    • Experience with independent design, expression, and purification of recombinant proteins

    • Experience with PAGE (SDS-PAGE, TBE/Urea-PAGE) gels and/or gel-shift assays

 
 

 
 

Looking for

Student in Bioinformatics, Genomics, Molecular Biology, or a related field

Location

San Francisco, California