Research Internship in Drug Discovery and Development

About the role

Philochem AG, the discovery R&D centre of the Philogen Group, is looking for an early-career scientist for its Chemistry group in Otelfingen, near Zurich. The internship starts in August 2026 and lasts up to one year, with a possible transition into an industrial PhD project. The project focuses on designing, synthesising, screening and validating DNA-encoded chemical libraries to find ligands for targeted therapies and diagnostics.

Key responsibilities

• Design and synthesize DNA-encoded chemical libraries and related compounds
• Screen libraries against pharmaceutically relevant targets
• Validate and prioritize hits using biochemical, biophysical, analytical and cell-based assays
• Analyze data and contribute to structure-activity relationship development
• Collaborate with scientists across chemistry, biology and mass spectrometry
• Present results internally and contribute to publications and intellectual property

Required profile

• Master's degree in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical biology, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacology or a related field
• Exposure to modern drug discovery and translational biomedical research
• Scientific rigor and ability to interpret experiments critically
• Proactive, organized and able to take responsibility
• Fluent written and spoken English

Required skills

• Experience in synthetic chemistry, screening technologies, DNA-encoded libraries or analytical methods is an advantage

What we offer

• A hands-on project on DNA-encoded chemical libraries in an international biotechnology setting
• Closer mentorship from experienced scientists
• Opportunities to publish, present at conferences and contribute to intellectual property
• Possible transition to a PhD project with a leading European university

Applications include a CV, motivation letter, transcripts and contact details of two references, sent by email to the named contacts at the company.