---
title: 'Research Associate, Protein Purification & Quality Control at Medra'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-associate-protein-purification-quality-control-medra-san-francisco-yzz33354ey6f'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Research Associate, Protein Purification & Quality Control at Medra

- **Company:** Medra
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/medraai/3adae454-8f38-40af-825b-fea9a7da9a10

## Job description

## WHAT WE’RE BUILDING

At Medra, our mission is to use AI, robotics, and biology to accelerate life science research, with the ultimate goal of eradicating disease. We have been quietly building the foundational layers of our Physical AI Scientist platform:

🤖 Physical AI that can operate scientific instruments with human-level dexterity.

🧪 Scientific AI that can analyze results, reason about next steps, and close the loop autonomously.

This is an incredibly ambitious mission, but we believe that a team of ambitious people with high ownership can accomplish incredible things.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a Research Associate to help build and run protein production and quality control on the Medra Physical AI platform. Working alongside our scientists, you will execute the workflow that takes antibodies and alternative binders from cells to purified, characterized material — automated cell growth, transfection, purification, and analytical QC — and help turn these steps into robust, high-throughput workflows that run autonomously for our customers. Expression, capture and polishing chromatography, and purity and monomericity analysis are the daily bread of this role, and you’ll play a hands-on part in making them reproducible, automation-ready, and reliable.

This is a role for someone early in their career who loves being at the bench, has strong hands-on instincts, and is eager to grow their protein science under the guidance of experienced scientists. You’ll work closely with roboticists and software engineers to bring cell culture, purification, and QC into routine autonomous execution on our platform.

## KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Run automated mammalian cell growth and transfection for recombinant protein expression, including cell maintenance, expansion, and transient transfection
- Perform protein purification on AKTA (FPLC) and KingFisher platforms — affinity capture, polishing, buffer exchange, and magnetic-bead-based processing
- Execute analytical QC by SEC (analytical UPLC/HPLC) to assess purity, aggregation, and monomericity, and support additional QC as needed (concentration, endotoxin, SDS-PAGE)
- Prepare buffers, resins, columns, and consumables, and carry out instrument cleaning, maintenance, and column packing/qualification to keep workflows running reliably
- Execute purification and QC according to established SOPs, and help refine and document protocols as workflows mature
- Partner with roboticists and software engineers to translate manual purification and QC steps into reliable, high-throughput autonomous protocols — including sample handling, deck/plate setup, and data pipeline integration
- Perform first-pass data analysis and QC on chromatograms and SEC traces, tracking yield and purity and flagging anomalies for review
- Maintain rigorous, well-organized experimental records in electronic lab notebooks (ELN) and support reproducibility across every batch you produce

## WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TEAM

- B.S. or M.S. in biochemistry, molecular biology, chemical/biological engineering, or a related discipline, with hands-on laboratory experience (research, internship, or 0–2+ years of industry/academic lab work)
- Hands-on experience with protein purification — chromatography on AKTA/FPLC and/or bead-based purification — and comfort taking a sample from lysate or supernatant to purified protein
- Hands-on wet-lab experience and comfort at the bench — mammalian cell culture, aseptic technique, pipetting, and careful execution of detailed protocols
- Curiosity about protein biochemistry and analytical characterization, and eagerness to learn the theory and practical pitfalls (aggregation, capture chemistry, buffer conditions, column behavior)
- Strong documentation habits, attention to detail, and the ability to juggle multiple tasks in parallel
- A basic understanding of antibody structure and function, or a strong desire to learn it
- A scrappy, can-do attitude — you figure things out, ask good questions, and get things done

## BONUS POINTS FOR

- Hands-on experience with analytical SEC or other analytical chromatography (UPLC/HPLC)
- Experience with automated or high-throughput purification (e.g., KingFisher, multi-column AKTA, robotic purification)
- Experience with mammalian expression systems (CHO/HEK) and transient transfection at scale
- Experience with lab automation or liquid handling platforms (e.g., Dynamic Devices Lynx, Tempest)
- Familiarity with alternative binder formats — VHHs, bispecifics, Fc-fusions, or non-Ig scaffolds
- Basic scripting or data-handling skills (Python/R) for organizing and analyzing purification and QC data

This position is 100% in-person; you must be able to come on-site to our San Francisco office. We offer relocation benefits for applicants who need to relocate.

## WHAT WE OFFER

- An opportunity to change the way that scientific research happens
- Fast-paced, creative, and collaborative work environment
- Significant equity ownership
- 401k
- Medical and dental insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Weekday dinners

## About Medra

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Building autonomous Physical AI for the lab to accelerate scientific discovery by executing and optimizing experiments in a closed loop.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (340 Pine Street, Suite 100)
- **Founded**: 2021 (some sources cite 2022 – conflicting reports)
- **Founders**: Michelle Lee (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Life sciences automation, laboratory robotics, AI-driven experimental design
- **Target customers**: B2B – biopharma companies, academic research labs, government agencies (e.g., DARPA)
- **Mission / purpose**: Unlock breakthroughs at scale by tightly integrating AI scientific reasoning with physical experimentation.

## Products & Services
- **Physical AI Lab (Medra Lab 001 – ML001)**: A fully autonomous robotic workcell that executes wet-lab protocols (e.g., CRISPR, cell culture, NGS) using computer vision and robotic manipulation. Instrument-agnostic and modular.
- **AI Experimentalist**: The scientific reasoning layer that translates natural-language research goals into executable experiment plans, coordinates multi-step protocols, analyzes results, and refines methods in a closed loop.
- **Platform Type**: Physical AI + Scientific AI as a service (on-site deployment or remote operation via ML001).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $63M (Series A of $52M closed December 2025, preceded by $11M pre-seed in October 2025 and a non-equity assistance from PharmStars in 2023)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Human Capital (lead), Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Catalio Capital, Neo, 776 (Seven Seven Six), Fusion Fund, Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew 100% YoY (31 employees as of mid-2026)
  - Launched ML001 in San Francisco (April 2026) — largest autonomous lab in the U.S.
  - Announced DARPA collaboration (June 2026) to advance natural-language-to-executable-experiment capabilities
  - 8 open positions across biology, engineering, design, and operations

## Competitive Advantages
- **Closed-loop integration**: Combines physical execution with AI-driven experimental design and learning – not just robotic task automation.
- **Instrument-agnostic & modular**: Works with both manual and automated lab instruments, allowing easy swapping of modules and protocols.
- **Natural-language programming**: Scientists can edit protocols in plain English (written or voice).
- **Scalable data generation**: Logs every action, video, and metadata per sample for traceability and model training.

## Strategic Focus
- Expand partnerships with biopharma, academia, and government (DARPA is a key early customer).
- Advance the AI Experimentalist layer to enable full autonomous hypothesis generation and validation.
- Scale deployments of Physical AI Labs on-site and remotely through ML001.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as “intense curiosity and rigorous debate” with clear, direct communication and quick resolution of conflicts through mutual respect.
- **Team**: Community of diverse thinkers, “not just a company but a movement to transform biotechnology.”
- **Work policy**: Likely on-site at the San Francisco lab given the nature of physical robotics; no explicit remote/hybrid policy mentioned.
- **Perks & highlights**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI + robotics with a high-impact mission; funded by top-tier VCs; strong engineering culture (43% technical staff, many from Neuralink, Applied Intuition, Amazon, Carnegie Mellon).

## Sources
1. [medra.ai](https://www.medra.ai/)
2. [medra.ai/careers](https://www.medra.ai/careers)
3. [linkedin.com/company/medra-ai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/medra-ai)
4. [cbinsights.com/company/medra](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/medra)
5. [medra.ai/darpa-collaboration](https://www.medra.ai/darpa-collaboration)
6. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/medraai](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/medraai)

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