---
title: 'Scientist, Biophysical Characterization (SPR/BLI) at Medra'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-biophysical-characterization-spr-bli-medra-san-francisco-vrq2zx0x093w'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-15'
---

# Scientist, Biophysical Characterization (SPR/BLI) at Medra

- **Company:** Medra
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-04
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-15
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/medraai/b6979689-9465-46ae-8026-6af2819f5fa1

## 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.

The Team

- We're a team of passionate, mission-driven engineers and scientists from companies like Tesla, Amazon, SpaceX, and Neuralink. We're collaborative and love moving fast, both with our product and on team trips skiing or go-karting!
- As a team, we love nerding out about engineering and robotics — plus other topics like race cars or cooking. We like learning new things and then sharing our new knowledge with each other.
- Our team is opinionated and straightforward. We don't mind intense discussions about design tradeoffs. If we have arguments or miscommunication, we resolve conflicts quickly and empathetically.

## The Role

We are looking for a Scientist to own biophysical characterization on the Medra Physical AI platform. You will develop, validate, and scale label-free binding assays — primarily SPR and BLI — and turn them into robust, high-throughput workflows that run autonomously for our customers. Antibody affinity and kinetics, epitope binning, self-interaction, and quantitation are the daily bread of this role, and you’ll be responsible for making these assays reproducible, automation-ready, and reliable at a throughput and consistency that manual benchwork can’t match. This is a role for someone who blends deep biophysical judgment with hands-on craft — someone who has designed and run SPR/BLI campaigns in high-stakes settings and is energized by the idea of translating that expertise into an autonomous lab. You will work closely with roboticists and software engineers to bring these assays into routine execution on our platform, and directly with customers to scope and deliver characterization campaigns.

Key Responsibilities:

- Develop, validate, and run SPR and BLI assays across the full range of formats — affinity and kinetics, epitope binning, self-interaction (AC-SINS and BLI-based), and concentration/quantitation — on platforms including the Carterra LSA and Gator BLI
- Design assay strategies for antibody and alternative binder characterization, selecting the right sensor chemistry, capture approach, regeneration conditions, and analysis models for each target and format
- Build out new biophysical capabilities end-to-end: scope the need, evaluate technologies, qualify instruments, write SOPs, and prepare validated workflows for autonomous execution
- Partner with roboticists and software engineers to translate manual SPR/BLI workflows into reliable, high-throughput autonomous protocols — including sample handling, plate setup, sensor/chip management, and data pipeline integration
- Develop rigorous data analysis and QC frameworks for kinetics fitting, binning heatmaps, and developability flags, and interpret results to inform customer go/no-go decisions
- Integrate biophysical data with orthogonal characterization — thermal stability (nanoDSF/DSC), aggregation and monomericity (HPLC-SEC/DLS), and polyspecificity — to give customers an integrated developability picture
- Work directly with customers to scope characterization campaigns, communicate results clearly, and translate their scientific questions into executable assay plans
- Maintain rigorous experimental records in electronic lab notebooks (ELN) and drive reproducibility across every assay you deploy

## What You Bring to the Team

- Ph.D. in biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, or a related discipline with 2+ years of industry experience, or a B.S./M.S. with 6+ years of deep, hands-on industry experience.
- Deep hands-on expertise with SPR and/or BLI — instrument operation, assay development, and data analysis — with a track record of generating high-quality kinetics data
- Strong command of binding kinetics theory and its practical pitfalls: avidity, mass transport, regeneration, surface capacity, and fitting model selection
- Demonstrated experience developing and qualifying biophysical assays from scratch, including method validation and troubleshooting
- Working understanding of antibody structure, function, and the therapeutic antibody discovery and developability process
- Strong documentation habits, attention to detail, and the ability to drive multiple workstreams in parallel
- A scrappy, can-do attitude — you figure things out and get things done

Bonus Points For

- Hands-on experience with high-throughput SPR platforms (e.g., Carterra LSA) and array-based epitope binning
- Experience with alternative binder formats — VHHs, bispecifics, Fc-fusions, or non-Ig scaffolds
- Hands-on experience with lab automation and liquid handling platforms (e.g., Lynx, Tempest, KingFisher)
- Experience developing developability assay panels (nanoDSF/DLS, HPLC-SEC/HIC, AC-SINS) and integrating multi-instrument datasets
- Experience building analysis pipelines or scripting for high-throughput kinetics data (Python/R)
- Track record of developing and qualifying new assays or platforms from scratch

## 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 insurance and dental insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Weekday lunches and dinners

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. Medra is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies. We value diversity at Medra and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

## 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)

## Other roles at Medra

- [Engagement Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/engagement-manager-medra-san-francisco-0fa0j3w4khy4) — San Francisco, CA
- [Research Associate, Protein Purification & Quality Control](https://feeny.ai/job/research-associate-protein-purification-quality-control-medra-san-francisco-yzz33354ey6f) — San Francisco, CA
- [Research Technician — Autonomous Platform (Nights / Weekends)](https://feeny.ai/job/research-technician-autonomous-platform-nights-weekends-medra-san-francisco-1d3pkp31a1hc) — San Francisco, CA
- [Systems Test Engineer - Contract](https://feeny.ai/job/systems-test-engineer-contract-medra-san-francisco-9mdgvzh03new) — San Francisco, CA
- [Robotics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-software-engineer-medra-san-francisco-2mg03whcxs8r) — San Francisco, CA
- [Robotics Manufacturing Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-manufacturing-technician-medra-san-francisco-15ehk6fcfhg4) — San Francisco, CA
- [Business Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/business-operations-medra-san-francisco-j4m093qj67dv) — San Francisco, CA
- [Full Stack Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-medra-san-francisco-bvht2fk1neme) — San Francisco, CA
- [Tech Lead Manager - Full Stack](https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-manager-full-stack-medra-san-francisco-b4qgaw64cnxw) — San Francisco, CA
- [Scientist, Cell Biology & Antibody Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-cell-biology-antibody-engineering-medra-san-francisco-xkvdftrxnpv4) — San Francisco, CA