basecamp-research

Senior Scientist, R&D

London
Full-time
Posted Aug 21, 2026

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Skills

Troubleshooting

Job description

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

As we continue to unlock our planet's biodiversity, we are looking for ambitious people with a passion for the development of extraction and sequencing workflows to continuously improve our data generation.

You will have the opportunity to help further build out our DNA / RNA pipelines to build the most diverse database in the world. This role will take ownership of our extraction workflows, developing methods to recover usable nucleic acids from challenging, varied, and low biomass environmental samples. You will be comfortable choosing and adapting lysis strategies, binding chemistries, inhibitor removal approaches, choosing the best commercial options and adapting or building your own additions where needed.

You will also be responsible for transfer of extraction methods to our production team and Global Partner Network across more than 30 countries. You'll be comfortable with sequencing workflows from end to end, from extraction through to library preparation, and have experience with both short and long read technologies, including high molecular weight (HMW) extraction methods. Virology experience in both extraction and sequencing would also be beneficial to this role. You'll understand when good is good enough and can support handover for testing and implementation in production.

The role is laboratory based but you will have ownership over your projects. You’ll work in a data-first environment, using experimental and sequencing-quality metrics to guide development, prioritisation and handover. Your work will feed directly into Basecamp Research’s Trillion Gene Atlas, transforming diverse global samples into high-quality biological data that reveals new genes, proteins, pathways and function from nature.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

•Working with the R&D Lead, Director of Production and wider R&D and Production teams and collaborators, align R&D projects in order and prioritise during data pushes.

•Own the R&D extraction workflow development. Adapt and optimise metagenomic extraction methods across a broad range of sample types (e.g. water, soil, sediments, faeces, biofilms), including approaches for low-biomass and inhibitor-rich matrices.

•Develop DNA / RNA purification methods using kits / chemistries / adaptation / in-house development to recover viruses and microbes, including high molecular weight (HMW) extractions suitable for long-read sequencing.

•Design well-controlled experiments to compare extraction chemistries and processing methods, define success criteria up front and generate validation data to support them.

•Transfer methods into production and out to our Global Partner Network through clear documentation, training and troubleshooting, designing for robustness across operator, equipment and environments.

•Prioritise development work based on scientific value, data-generation impact, feasibility, production scalability, and organisational timelines.

•Analyse your own experiments and present this out to the wider organisation.

•Horizon scan for emergent methodologies, either within or outside of molecular biology approaches, that could add additional value to projects.

•Capable of working within a multi-disciplinary team, both as a project lead or as part of a delivery team, and mentor within the team and wider organisation.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES

•A minimum of 5 years' experience working on technically focused extraction development/molecular biology, either in a commercial R&D or large project-based academic setting.

•Genuine depth in extraction chemistry across a range of sample types (e.g. water, soil, sediments, faeces, biofilms), being able to explain why you would choose a kit/method and what you change to optimise it.

•Hands on experience with low biomass or difficult to extract samples and the challenges you will encounter working with them.

•Experience developing or applying high molecular weight (HMW) extraction methods for long read sequencing.

•Structured experimental design (e.g. DoE), statistical comparison of method performance, and systematic troubleshooting.

•A track record of method development and transfer.

ADVANTAGEOUS SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES

•Environmental metagenomics or microbial ecology background.

•Virology experience covering both extraction and Sequencing.

•Familiarity with automation and high throughput scaling of methods, its pitfalls and the development of methods for its usage.

•Experience developing methods intended for deployment in field, remote or low-resource settings.

WHAT WE OFFER IN RETURN

Impactful Mission: This is a rare chance 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 London and Boston, 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 in our people. 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 private healthcare with no medical history exclusions - so strong that most employees' family members opt into our plan over their own. We also offer Carrot Fertility with IVF stipend, salary sacrifice pension, bike-to-work scheme, life insurance, and more.

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.