Scientist - Cell Biology

About the Company

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.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, or optimize mammalian cell preparations, including cell lines, primary and iPSC-derived neurons, brain organoids, or brain slices
• Collaboratively design and build novel protein and genetic constructs to enable biosensing and/or actuation functionality
• Develop and perform cell engineering workflows, including construct delivery, selection, and/or differentiation
• Characterize construct functionality and cellular burden using activity recording, microscopy, stimulation, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and/or next-gen sequencing
• Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams integrating protein engineering, biochemistry, cell biology, neuroscience, genetics, research platform, and computational methods
• Recruit and mentor research associate(s) as needed to expand efforts

Requirements

• Ph.D. or equivalent experience leading research projects end-to-end in neuroscience, cell biology, molecular biology, bioengineering, or a related field
• Demonstrated expertise in neuronal cell culture and engineering
• Knowledge of cell pathologies, metabolism, proteostatis, protein trafficking and/or epigenetics
• Programming and data analysis skills (Python, MATLAB, or ImageJ/Fiji)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with primary neurons, human iPSC-derived neurons, brain organoids, and/or acute/organotypic brain slices
• Experience with high-throughput screening, tissue clearing, advanced microscopy, next-gen sequencing, or spatial transcriptomic techniques
• Experience with protein or gene circuit engineering
• Experience with electrophysiology and/or neural circuit interrogation