Research Associate - Biosensing

About the role

We are hiring a Research Associate to work with the scientific team to build and run Melody's bioelectronics foundry. You will be responsible for evolving and testing new protein biosensors. Your work will involve molecular biology, liquid handling robotics, and novel hardware developed by the team for running biophysical assays. You will work closely with the chemistry and device engineering teams to move biosensor candidates from DNA constructs to purified proteins, screening data, device-relevant assays, and quantitative performance measurements.

Responsibilities

• Express and purify engineered binders and biosensors.
• Design, order, and prepare DNA constructs, mutant libraries, and binder-reporter variants.
• Run fluorescence, plate-reader, biochemical, biophysical, and novel device-based assays.
• Generate dose-response curves and quantify EC50/Kd, dynamic range, signal-to-noise, selectivity, kinetics, reversibility, stability, and drift.
• Support yeast display, FACS-based screening, and directed evolution workflows.
• Interface biosensors with optical and electrochemical readouts on benchtop hardware.
• Help automate assay workflows using liquid handlers, plate readers, and custom scripts.
• Maintain clean records of constructs, samples, sequence-function relationships, assay metadata, instrument settings, and experimental results.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers to turn one-off assays into repeatable workflows that scale to the needs of the platform.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in biology, chemistry, physics, or other relevant field.
• 2+ years of experience in wet lab bench involving protein engineering or biophysical assays.
• Demonstrated precision in experimental work and project management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of biophysical methods and associated instrumentation for thermodynamics and kinetics measurements.
• Ability to write custom scripts in Python/R for data analysis.
• Experience with lab automation techniques including liquid handling robots.
• Experience with biomaterial preparation and protein functionalization chemistry.
• Familiarity with industry standards in protein and device engineering.

Benefits

$65,000 - $95,000 a year
Salary leveled based on experience and fit.
We Offer 401k match up to 6% of base salary.
Excellent health, vision, and dental benefits.
Paid time off and company holidays.

Pay

$65,000 - $95,000 a year

Schedule

N/A

Skills

N/A

Benefits

We Offer 401k match up to 6% of base salary.
Excellent health, vision, and dental benefits.
Paid time off and company holidays.