Senior Scientist Peptide Discovery

Basecamp Research•Boston, MA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Basecamp Research is seeking a Senior Scientist, Peptide Discovery to join its Boston, Massachusetts team. Reporting to the Head of Gene Editing and Early Discovery, this scientist will experimentally validate AI-generated peptide candidates across therapeutic programs, including antifungal, antimicrobial, and cardiometabolic programs. The work involves cell culture-based functional, safety, and developability assays that inform the company’s AI-guided peptide discovery pipeline. The role combines mammalian cell culture, cytotoxicity and viability testing, hemolysis and permeability assays, immunogenicity risk assessment, and cell-based receptor activation assays for GLP-1 and related incretin candidates. The scientist will prepare peptide samples, analyze dose-response data, support fungal susceptibility testing, maintain laboratory records, and collaborate with computational and AI colleagues. The position also calls for independently developing assay strategies and follow-on testing; Senior Scientists additionally mentor junior staff and help set assay development priorities.

Requirements

PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, bioengineering, or a related life-sciences field, or an MSc with equivalent hands-on laboratory experience.
Strong demonstrated hands-on mammalian cell culture experience, including aseptic technique, cell line maintenance, and viability or cytotoxicity assays.
Expertise in flow cytometry using antibody panels and fluorescent reporters.
Experience with cell-based functional or signaling assays, such as cAMP, GPCR activation, or reporter gene assays.
Ability to work independently on multi-step, multi-day assay timelines.
Experience with hemolysis assays or other peptide membrane-toxicity screens.
Knowledge of setting up assays to track peptide half-life in human serum, plasma, or simulated physiological fluids.
Experience with permeability or barrier models, or membrane permeabilization assays.
Experience with immunogenicity risk assessment tools, such as in silico epitope prediction software or PBMC-based assays.
Basic familiarity with microbial or fungal handling, or willingness to be trained; this is not expected to be a core strength.
Excellent communication skills and ability to work with technical and non-technical stakeholders, including engineers, data scientists, biologists, product managers, and external partners.
Proactive, resourceful, independent approach, with initiative to identify and address problems or inefficiencies.
Comfort with ambiguity, rapid change, and adapting plans in a dynamic environment.
High ownership, follow-through, and commitment to delivering quality results.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with GLP-1R or other incretin receptor cell-based assays, including cAMP/HTRF, luciferase reporter, or similar assays, or experience generating and working with stable receptor-expressing cell lines.
Experience running Biacore surface plasmon resonance (SPR) testing to measure peptide-target binding kinetics and affinity.
Experience with peptide handling, reconstitution, or synthetic peptide chemistry basics.
Exposure to high-throughput or medium-throughput screening formats.
Prior exposure to antimicrobial or antifungal susceptibility testing, such as MIC/MBC assays against fungal pathogens including Candida albicans, Candida auris, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or Fusarium graminearum.
Mechanism-driven approach to antimicrobial testing, including interest in investigating mechanisms such as cell wall disruption, membrane depolarization, or intracellular targeting to inform follow-up assays.
Mechanistic understanding of gene-editing tools, including nucleases, base editors, transposons, retrotransposons, and recombinases.
Familiarity with modern software and AI tools, and an intentional AI-first approach to work.
Experience with GLP-1R is a strong plus but transferable GPCR assay experience may be considered.

Responsibilities

Perform routine mammalian cell culture, including maintenance of cell lines such as HepG2, HEK293, CHO, or receptor-expressing stable lines.
Design and execute cell-based cytotoxicity and viability assays, including 96-well assays such as CellTiter Blue or equivalent.
Run red blood cell hemolysis assays to assess peptide membrane-disruptive toxicity.
Run cell permeability assays to evaluate peptide membrane interactions and barrier penetration.
Support immunogenicity risk assessment, potentially including in silico T-cell epitope prediction and PBMC-based cytokine release or proliferation assays.
Run cell-based GLP-1R and related incretin receptor activation assays, including cAMP accumulation assays in GLP-1R-expressing stable cell lines.
Support or help establish stable reporter or receptor cell lines through methods such as transfection, antibiotic selection, and flow cytometry-based confirmation of receptor expression.
Generate and fit dose-response curves for potency and safety endpoints, including EC50, LC50, and hemolytic or cytotoxic thresholds.
Prepare peptide stock and working solutions from synthesized crude and high-purity peptides for cell-based testing.
Support MIC-style fungal susceptibility assays against organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, Candida auris, and Fusarium graminearum, as a smaller part of the workload.
Maintain detailed and accurate lab notebooks and contribute to data summaries, figures, and reports.
Collaborate with computational and AI team members to share experimental results that guide iterative peptide down-selection across therapeutic programs.
Independently design cell-based assay strategies, develop assays for emerging peptide targets or developability endpoints, and propose follow-up testing based on prior results.
Mentor junior staff and help set assay development priorities at the Senior Scientist level.
Support development or use of assays tracking peptide half-life in human serum, plasma, or simulated physiological fluids, as relevant to the role’s stated experience areas.