Research Associate - Expression, Biochemistry

Merge Labs is a frontier research lab with the mission of bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability, agency and experience. We’re pursuing this goal by developingfundamentally new approaches to brain-computer interfaces that interact with the brain at high bandwidth, integrate with advanced AI, and are ultimately safe and accessible for anyone to use.

About the team:

On the Expression team, our work combines biochemistry, protein engineering, and cell biology to ensure the efficient assembly of complex protein systems for use as molecular readouts of neural activity.

About the role:

As a Research Associate, you’ll work alongside scientists to understand and engineer how these protein systems assemble. Through experiments in biochemistry and cell biology, you’ll investigate protein interactions, activity, and structure, with opportunities to take increasing ownership of experimental design and interpretation.

In this role, you will:

• Design and execute assays to uncover how protein complexes assemble in a poorly understood biochemical system.

• Express and purify proteins, reconstitute complexes, and perform cell-based assays to determine the roles of individual proteins.

• Characterize how variants affect protein function to guide engineering efforts.

• Analyze and present findings to help shape hypotheses and design follow-up experiments.

• Maintain detailed experimental records and organized protein, plasmid, and cell inventories.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree, with a background in biochemistry, structural biology, or a related field.

• Experience using biochemical or biophysical methods to characterize protein structure, dynamics, or protein-protein interactions.

• Hands-on experience with mammalian cell culture, transfection, and cell-based assays.

• Curiosity, attention to detail, and a systematic approach to troubleshooting.

• Strong documentation, communication, and collaboration skills.

Additional experience that would be valuable includes:

• Experience expressing and purifying challenging proteins or protein complexes.

• Experience designing and implementing large-scale screens or high-throughput experiments.

• Experience with molecular biology techniques such as cloning, mutagenesis, and plasmid preparation.

If you're excited about this role but don't meet every qualification, please apply. As we build, we're hiring for complementary strengths to form a high-impact team.

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