Research Associate – Expression (Biochemistry)

Merge Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Merge Labs is a frontier research lab pursuing brain-computer interfaces that couple biology with AI. The Research Associate will work with scientists to design and execute biochemical and cell-based experiments, studying protein assemblies and interactions to guide engineering efforts.

You will document results, maintain careful records, and contribute to hypotheses and follow-up studies, with emphasis on collaboration and rigorous experimental methods.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Biochemistry

Protein engineering

Cell biology

Data analysis

Education

Biochemistry degree

Structural biology background

Tools

Cloning

Mutagenesis

Plasmid prep

Cell culture

Job description

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 developing fundamentally 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.

For more information about hiring at Merge, please visit our Hiring FAQ

Merge Labs does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, family status, ancestry, citizenship, U.S. military (state and federal) and veteran status, or any other legally protected status. It is our intention that all applicants be given equal opportunity and that selection decisions are based on job related factors. We are an equal opportunity employer.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made by emailing [e-mail].