Senior/Principal Scientist - Immunology (Branford)

Are you ready to join Connecticut Innovations’ vibrant community of innovators?

Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm. We proudly support a growing portfolio of over 240 high-impact companies across life sciences, technology, and climate tech.

CellsBin is backed by CI and other top-tier investors, and they are growing their team. CellsBin - Advanced Nanophotonics for Rare Cell Detection

CellsBin is a tech-bio company advancing precision medicine through cutting-edge rare-cell detection and analysis. Backed by prestigious investors, we develop scalable, intuitive platforms that unlock new insights into cell behavior for diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring. Our first application empowers cell therapy developers to non-invasively track therapeutic cells, assess efficacy, and detect complications early, driving safer, more effective treatments

About the Role

Cellsbin® is seeking a highly motivated Senior Scientist or Principal Scientist in Immunology with strong expertise in immune-cell biology, cell therapy assay development, and high-parameter cytometry. This role will support the development, optimization, validation, and execution of assays for rare therapeutic-cell detection, immune phenotyping, and translational cell therapy applications.

The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience with human PBMCs, T cells, CAR-T cells, CAR-NK cells, Tregs, TILs, and other engineered or therapeutic immune-cell populations. This person will help advance Cellsbin’s platform, support customer-facing studies, design biologically meaningful assay panels, and translate complex single-cell datasets into clear scientific insights.

Key Responsibilities

• Work on and advance the Cellsbin® platform for rare therapeutic-cell detection, phenotypic characterization, and longitudinal monitoring across cell and gene therapy applications.
• Develop, optimize, and execute assays using PBMCs, T cells, CAR-T cells, CAR-NK cells, Tregs, TILs, and other therapeutic immune-cell populations.
• Design antibody panels for surface and intracellular phenotyping, including markers of activation, exhaustion, memory, differentiation, persistence, cytotoxicity, proliferation, and functional state.
• Develop and validate high-parameter flow cytometry and/or spectral flow cytometry assays for immune-cell characterization.
• Analyze and interpret complex single-cell phenotyping datasets and translate findings into clear biological and translational insights.
• Establish assay performance parameters, including sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, precision, linearity, and limits of detection.
• Troubleshoot staining workflows, sample preparation, acquisition settings, compensation/unmixing, gating strategies, marker performance, and data interpretation.
• Collaborate with platform, data science, translational, and business development teams.
• Support customer studies, internal validation studies, SOP development, assay documentation, technical summaries, reports, and scientific presentations.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Immunology, Cell Biology, Cancer Biology, Bioengineering, Biomedical Sciences, or a related field.
• 3+ years of relevant post-PhD experience in academia, biotech, pharma, or translational research.
• Strong background in immunology, especially T-cell biology, immune-cell activation, exhaustion, memory, differentiation, persistence, and cytotoxicity.
• Hands-on experience with human PBMCs, primary immune cells, T cells, CAR-T cells, or other engineered immune-cell populations.
• Expertise in multicolor antibody panel design, surface and intracellular staining, and immune-cell phenotyping.
• Strong experience with spectral flow cytometry and/or high-parameter multicolor flow cytometry.
• Experience with cytometry analysis software such as FlowJo, FCS Express, Cytobank, OMIQ, SpectroFlo, or equivalent platforms.
• Ability to independently design experiments, analyze data, troubleshoot assays, interpret results, and communicate conclusions clearly.
• Strong organizational, documentation, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with CAR-T, CAR-NK, TCR-T, TIL, Treg, NK-cell, or other cell therapy products.
• Experience with rare-event detection, low-frequency cell population analysis, or longitudinal immune monitoring.
• Experience in hematologic malignancies, especially multiple myeloma, lymphoma, leukemia, or post-cell therapy monitoring.
• Experience supporting assay validation, analytical performance characterization, regulated assay development, or CLIA/CAP-aligned workflows.
• Familiarity with translational research, clinical sample analysis, biomarker strategy, companion diagnostic workflows, or regulatory expectations in cell therapy.
• Experience with AI-enabled analysis, high-dimensional cytometry, single-cell analysis, or computational immunology is a plus.
• Experience working in a startup, biotech, or fast-paced translational environment.

Why Join Cellsbin®

This role offers the opportunity to work at the interface of immunology, cell therapy, rare-cell detection, high-dimensional single-cell analysis, and AI-enabled assay development. The successful candidate will help shape assay strategy, panel design, validation studies, SOPs, and customer-facing applications that advance how rare therapeutic cells are detected, characterized, and monitored across research, translational, and clinical programs.

Connecticut Innovations and their portfolio companies are equal opportunity employers. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.