Student Internships in Solid State Science for students enrolled in chemistry, chemical or process engineering, pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmaceutical technology, or physics - RISM

The Position

Student Internships in Solid State Science for students enrolled in chemistry, chemical or process engineering, pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmaceutical technology, or physics

As part of the global technical development organization, the Particle Design group is the center of excellence for the design of drug substance particles with tailor-made solid-state properties to facilitate downstream processing to the drug product. This includes the development and optimization of the processes on laboratory scale, as well as scale-up of the corresponding manufacturing processes in close collaboration with the production sites. Our responsibilities also include the evaluation and implementation of new strategies to obtain particles with the desired properties.

As an Intern in the particle design group you will be working on one of the following project-areas:

Co-processing of API with inorganic materials

The goal of the project is to refine the preparation process and assess the benefits of co-processing APIs with inorganic compounds, using either mechanical dry-surface coating or adsorption onto mesoporous carriers, aiming at an improvement of their processability in the desired pharmaceutical formulation principle.

Spherical crystallization scale-up / industrialization

Further development of the spherical crystallization methodology with focus on application at scale in an industrial setting (focus on dosing/mixing, filtration and drying) 

Ab-initio solubility prediction enhanced by machine learning

Improvement of the already established workflow for the solubility computation by a machine-learning module. This includes an experimental part (70% laboratory work including sample preparation, solubility measurements and solid residue analysis) as well as a computational part: The remaining 30% will be dedicated to data preparation, model training and evaluation of different machine learning models.

Who you are

You are an enrolled student in the subject of chemistry, chemical or process engineering, pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmaceutical technology, physics or a related field (preferably with a bachelor's degree) and have an interest and experience in crystallization and solid-state characterization. Furthermore, you are interested in using and sharing your knowledge as part of a 6-12 months internship in a modern working environment.

Your further profile for one of the positions:

General:

Team-oriented and decision-making personality

Problem solving-oriented work habits

Good knowledge of MS-Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) & Google equivalents (gSheets, gDocs, gSlides)

Proficient in English, German is a plus

Experience working in a lab-environment.

For project area A: Mechanical dry-surface coating / adsorption onto mesoporous carriers

Knowledge in process engineering, powder processing, as well as powder characterization techniques

For project area B: Spherical crystallization scale-up / industrialization

Knowledge in process engineering, crystallization and granulation techniques, as well as formation of emulsions and their stabilization

For project area C: Ab-initio solubility prediction enhanced by machine learning

Good knowledge of python programming

Basic knowledge of pandas, scikit-learn, XGBoost and Random forest regression models and hyperparameter tuning

Basic knowledge of Jupyter Notebooks

Ideally experience with Linux and Windows OS

Ideally first experience with solid state characterization techniques: PXRD, DSC, TGA

These internship opportunities are three of a number of positions we offer in the department per semester. The interviews will take place on an interview day with all considered candidates and the whole department.

Your complete application includes the following documents

A Current CV and a Motivation Letter 

A certificate of enrollment (if you are currently studying). If you want to use this opportunity to do a Master’s or Diploma thesis, please highlight this in your application

Due to regulations, you must provide a certificate issued by your university stating that an Internship is mandatory for your studies
 - for non-EU/EFTA candidates: this is required for each and every duration of the internship
- for EU/EFTA candidates: this is only required if you would like to stay for more than 6 month

Application Process

The Internship will start in 2024 for 6-12 months , please indicate your preferred start date and duration in your application. 

More information about the Roche Internship program in Synthetic Molecules (RiSM) and other opportunities within this program you can findhere.

Roche embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

Are you ready to apply? We are looking for someone who thinks beyond the job offered - someone who knows that this position can be a rare springboard to many other opportunities