Scientist, Peptide Discovery

Responsibilities

• ) following established protocols, as a smaller part of the overall workload.

Requirements

• A PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, bioengineering, or a life-sciences related field, or an MSc with equivalent hands-on laboratory experience.
• Strong, demonstrated hands-on experience with mammalian cell culture (aseptic technique, cell line maintenance, viability/cytotoxicity assays).
• Experience with permeability/barrier models or membrane permeabilization assays.
• Familiarity with modern software and AI tools. You don’t need to be writing code, but you should adopt an AI first mindset and we expect everyone at Basecamp Research to be intentional about how they use their time. If an AI agent can do that task, get the agent on it and save your headspace for informed discussions and effective decisions.
• Communication & Interpersonal Skills: Excellent communication skills with a talent for working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. You can interface comfortably with software engineers, data scientists, biologists, product managers, and external partners, translating needs and keeping everyone in sync.
• A proactive, resourceful, and independent mindset. You take initiative to identify problems or inefficiencies and act on them. You’re the kind of person who spots an issue and rallies the right people to fix it before it escalates.

About us

Basecamp Research is building frontier AI for therapeutic design. We believe the future of medicine lies in reprogramming the body to repair itself, and we design the models and the medicines to teach it how.

Our EDEN models are trained on BaseData, the world's largest proprietary genomic dataset, with over 10B genes collected through partnerships in more than 30 countries across all seven continents. This gives our AI models access to genetic diversity that doesn't exist in public databases, and enables EDEN to design cell and gene therapies, enzymes, and peptides directly from information about a disease. Our pipeline of EDEN-designed therapeutics, beginning with in vivo cell therapy, is advancing towards clinical development.

In September 2026 we closed an oversubscribed $140M Series C led by S32, with participation from NVIDIA, Anthropic's Anthology Fund, Catalio, European Tech Collective, Firebrand River Capital, King Philanthropies, NATO Innovation Fund, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm), Redalpine, Rockefeller Foundation, Singular, Sovereign AI and True Ventures. We have offices and labs in London and Boston, we partner with biopharma companies and academic institutions worldwide, and our work has been recognised by Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Biotech, the FT-backed Sifted AI100 list of Europe's leading AI startups as well as Barclays Eagle Labs Ones to watch, AI100.

At Basecamp Research, we pride ourselves on being a lean collaborative and global team with extremely specialist and unique skills. Our biologists, engineers, ML scientists and field explorers are united by a sense of adventure and the belief that AI, biology and data, will result in new medicines for patients who have few options today.

The Role

We are seeking a highly capable and proactive Scientist, Peptide Discovery to join our Boston, MA team. This role reports to the Head of Gene Editing and Early Discovery and supports the experimental validation of AI-generated peptide candidates across multiple therapeutic programs — including but not limited to antifungal, antimicrobial, and cardiometabolic peptides — through cell culture-based functional, safety, and developability assays that directly inform our AI-guided peptide discovery pipeline.

Mammalian cell culture

Perform routine mammalian cell culture (e.g., HepG2, HEK293, CHO, or receptor-expressing stable cell lines).

Cytotoxicity/viability assays

Design and execute cell-based cytotoxicity/viability assays (e.g., CellTiter Blue or equivalent) in 96-well format.

Hemolysis assays

Run hemolysis assays using red blood cells to assess membrane-disruptive toxicity of peptide candidates.

Cell permeability assays

Run cell permeability assays to evaluate peptide membrane interaction and barrier penetration.

Immunogenicity risk assessment

Support immunogenicity risk assessment of peptide candidates, which may include in silico T-cell epitope prediction, PBMC-based cytokine release or proliferation assays.

GLP-1R activation assays

Run cell-based receptor activation assays for GLP-1 and related incretin peptide candidates, including cAMP accumulation assays (e.g., HTRF, ELISA-based, or luciferase reporter formats) in GLP-1R-expressing stable cell lines.

Stable cell line support

Support or help establish stable reporter/receptor cell lines (e.g., transfection, antibiotic selection, flow cytometry-based confirmation of receptor expression) for new peptide target classes.

Dose-response analysis

Generate and fit dose-response curves for potency (EC50) and safety (LC50, hemolytic/cytotoxic thresholds) endpoints.

Peptide handling

Prepare peptide stock and working solutions from synthesized peptides (crude and high-purity formulations) for cell-based testing.

Fungal susceptibility support

• Support MIC-style fungal susceptibility assays (e.g., against
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Candida albicans
• Candida auris, and
• Fusarium graminearum

Documentation

Maintain detailed, accurate lab notebooks and contribute to data summaries, figures, and reports.

Cross-functional collaboration

Collaborate with computational/AI team members to relay experimental results that inform iterative peptide down-selection across therapeutic programs.

Assay strategy development

Independently design cell-based assay strategies (including new assay development for emerging peptide targets or developability endpoints) and propose follow-on testing based on prior results.

Flow cytometry

Expertise in flow cytometry using both antibody panels and fluorescent reporters.

Functional/signaling assays

Experience with cell-based functional/signaling assays (e.g., cAMP, GPCR activation assays, reporter gene assays); GLP-1R experience specifically is a strong plus but not always required if you have transferable GPCR assay experience.

Microbiology (secondary)

Basic familiarity with microbial/fungal handling, or willingness to be trained on it (not expected to be a core strength).

Independence

Ability to work independently on multi-step, multi-day assay timelines.

Hemolysis & Membrane-Toxicity Assays

Experience with hemolysis assays or other peptide membrane-toxicity screens.

Proteolytic & Serum Stability

Knowledge of how to set up assays tracking peptide half-life in human serum, plasma, or simulated physiological fluids.

Immunogenicity Risk Tools

• Experience with immunogenicity risk assessment tools — in silico epitope prediction software, PBMC-based assays.
• Advantageous Skills and Experience

GLP-1R / Incretin Assays

Direct experience with GLP-1R or other incretin receptor cell-based assays (cAMP/HTRF, luciferase reporter, or similar), or experience generating and working with stable receptor-expressing cell lines.

Binding & Kinetics Expert

Experience running Biacore (SPR) testing to measure exactly how fast, how tightly, and how long our peptides bind to their targets is a bonus skill.

Peptide Handling

Experience with peptide handling/reconstitution or synthetic peptide chemistry basics.

Screening Throughput

Exposure to high-throughput or medium-throughput screening formats.

Antifungal Susceptibility

Any prior exposure to antimicrobial/antifungal susceptibility testing (MIC/MBC) against fungal pathogens (e.g., Candida albicans, Candida auris, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or Fusarium graminearum) is a bonus.

Mechanism-Driven Mindset

A great candidate won't just look at MIC numbers; they will want to know how it kills (e.g., cell wall disruption, membrane depolarization, or intracellular targeting). Understanding the mechanism of action (MoA) helps them design which secondary assays to run next.

Gene Editing Tools Knowledge

Mechanistic understanding of gene editing tools, including nucleases, base editors, transposons, retrotransposons, and recombinases is a bonus.

Adaptability

Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change. Our environment evolves quickly – you should thrive in a dynamic setting and be flexible in adjusting plans, while maintaining a positive, can-do attitude.

Ownership & Drive

High degree of ownership over your work. You care about outcomes and reliably follow through on tasks and take pride in delivering quality results.

Impactful Mission

This is a rare opportunity to do work that genuinely matters. You'll join a talented, fast-moving team, access unique biological datasets at scale, and see your contributions shape real breakthroughs in AI and curative therapeutics.

Collaborative Culture

You'll be surrounded by world-class engineers, scientists, and researchers who care deeply about their work and about each other. With offices in Boston and London, we've built a flexible, cross-functional environment where personal development and real ownership aren't just talking points.

High Growth

We truly believe in investing our top talent, we make coaching available to team members during steep growth journeys and we have twice yearly promotion opportunities. People who are really successful here own it and go directly to solve problems at pace and we ensure reward increases with impact.

Comprehensive Benefits

We've built a benefits package people value. That means competitive salary, equity, and healthcare so strong that most employees' family members opt into our plan over their own. We also offer Carrot Fertility with IVF stipend, 401(k), life insurance, and more.

Salary range for this role depends on level, skills and experience (Scientist I/II vs. Senior Scientist): $110K - $165K base.

Apply for the job

Do you want to join our team as our new Scientist, Peptide Discovery? Then we'd love to hear about you!

We are committed to equal opportunity employment regardless of ethnic or national origin, race, religion, sex, age, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, gender identity or any other basis. If you have a disability or additional need that needs accommodating do let us know.