Scientist / Senior Scientist, tLNP Formulation and Delivery

Basecamp Research•Boston, MA

21h•$110,000 - $165,000•Onsite

About The Position

Basecamp Research is building frontier AI for therapeutic design, aiming to reprogram the body to repair itself. They utilize proprietary genomic datasets and AI models to design cell and gene therapies, enzymes, and peptides. The company recently closed a $140M Series C funding round and has offices and labs in London and Boston. Basecamp Research has been recognized for its innovation in AI and biotech. The team is described as lean, collaborative, and global, united by a mission to develop new medicines for patients with limited options. The role is for a Scientist / Senior Scientist, tLNP Formulation and Delivery to join the Boston, MA team. This position reports to the Head of Gene Editing and Early Discovery and is responsible for the end-to-end design, formulation, bioconjugation, and characterization of targeted lipid nanoparticles (tLNPs). The role involves close collaboration with the cell biology team for validation and serving as the primary technical interface for in vivo studies, focusing on achieving extrahepatic tissue tropism for next-generation gene and cell therapies. This is a lab-based role requiring daily on-site presence.

Requirements

A PhD in biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, or a related field, with 1–2 years of relevant experience (Scientist) or 3+ years (Senior Scientist); an MSc with equivalent hands-on laboratory experience will also be considered.
Hands-on drug delivery foundations.
Thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast-moving environment.
Hands-on experience with LNP assembly platforms (microfluidic/NanoAssemblr, T mixing, or ethanol injection).
Hands-on experience with surface bioconjugation techniques to functionalize nanoparticles with targeting moieties.
Demonstrated understanding and experience in shifting nanoparticle biodistribution/tropism through lipid compositional tweaking, molar ratio modification, or structural lipid alteration.
Experience with LNP analytical techniques such as DLS, encapsulation assays, etc.
Hands-on experience with targeted LNPs or LNPs and conjugation of biomaterials.

Nice To Haves

Experience with automated or high-throughput liquid-handling platforms for formulation screening.
Practical knowledge of Design of Experiments (DoE) software (e.g., JMP) for systematic LNP optimization.
Interest or prior experience collaborating with computational/ML teams on AI-guided formulation or targeting-ligand design.
Familiarity with peptide-based targeting ligands or peptide bioconjugation chemistries, given Basecamp's AI-generated peptide design capabilities.
Experience with scaling up LNPs is a definite plus.
High degree of ownership over your work.
Care about outcomes and reliably follow through on tasks and take pride in delivering quality results.

Responsibilities

Develop targeted LNP technology to enable extrahepatic tissue tropism for next-generation genetic medicines.
Design and execute tLNP formulations encapsulating nucleic acid payloads (e.g., mRNA, DNA, sgRNA, etc.), systematically altering lipid ratios, ionizable lipid structures, and helper components to drive extrahepatic tissue tropism.
Direct third-party CROs to synthesize lipids of interest.
Perform hands-on surface modifications and bioconjugation chemistries to attach targeting moieties (antibodies, VHHs/nanobodies, peptides) to LNP surfaces.
Perform routine and advanced LNP analytics, including particle size/polydispersity (e.g., dynamic light scattering), zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency (e.g., RiboGreen assays), and other relevant conjugation/purity metrics for labeled ligands.
Perform physicochemical characterization of LNP formulations to support formulation optimization and quality assessment.
Partner with the cell biology team to develop, optimize, and execute in vitro assays (using flow cytometry/FACS, plate readers, and fluorescence/luminescence imaging) to evaluate target binding, receptor-mediated cellular uptake, endosomal escape, and functional cargo translation of candidate tLNPs.
Partner with the innovation team to design robust in vivo biodistribution and pharmacokinetic (PK) studies to evaluate tLNP performance.
Maintain detailed Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) records, author technical reports, generate patent disclosure data, and present findings to cross-functional scientific leadership.
Collaborate across the cell biology, innovation, and computational/AI teams to relay formulation and in vitro/in vivo results that inform iterative design of AI-generated targeting ligands and payloads.