Senior Research Investigator / Research Leader (Translational Pharmacology), London

Isomorphic Labs is applying frontier AI to help unlock deeper scientific insights, faster breakthroughs, and life-changing medicines with an ambition to solve all disease.

The future is coming. A future enabled and enriched by the incredible power of machine learning. A future in which diseases are curtailed or cured starting with better and faster drug discovery.

Come and be part of an interdisciplinary team driving groundbreaking innovation and play a meaningful role in contributing towards us achieving our ambitious goals, while being a part of an inspiring and collaborative culture.

The world we want tomorrow is the one we’re building today. It starts with the culture at this company. It starts with you.

About Iso

Isomorphic Labs (IsoLabs) was launched in 2021 to advance human health by building on and beyond the Nobel-winning AlphaFold system. Since then, our interdisciplinary team of drug discovery experts and machine learning specialists has built powerful new predictive and generative AI models that accelerate scientific discovery at digital speed.

Our name comes from the belief that there is an underlying symmetry between biology and information science. By harnessing AI’s powerful capabilities, we can use it to model complex biological phenomena to help design novel molecules, anticipate how drugs will perform and develop innovative medicines to treat and cure some of the world’s most devastating diseases.

We have built a world-leading drug design engine comprising AI models that are capable of working across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities. We are continually innovating on model architecture and developing cutting-edge capabilities to advance rational drug design.

Every day, and with each new breakthrough, we’re getting closer to the promise of digital biology, and achieving our ambitious mission to one day solve all disease with the help of AI.

Your impact

We are seeking an accomplished and visionary translational biologist to join our Translational Pharmacology team in London, working at the forefront of multidisciplinary, AI-first drug discovery.

In this role, you will shape and advance our exploratory research portfolio, with an initial core focus on neurodegenerative diseases as well as adjacent high unmet need indications. Operating at the interface of disease biology, translational science, and AI-driven molecular design, you will translate deep mechanistic insights of human disease into robust therapeutic hypotheses, target validation packages, and decision-critical experimental workflows to progress programs from target identification to portfolio entry.

Working shoulder-to-shoulder with world-leading machine learning researchers, computational biologists, and drug designers, you will bridge the gap between dry-lab predictive models and experimental biology—ensuring our AI platforms are grounded in disease-relevant biology and guiding next-generation medicines towards clinical reality.

What you will do

Therapeutic Area Strategy & Target Discovery:

• Partner with therapeutic area leadership to define and evolve our neurodegeneration research strategy, identifying priority indications, emerging biological mechanisms, and high-value therapeutic opportunities.
• Integrate insights across human genetics, disease pathology, clinical datasets, and advanced cellular models to critically evaluate target tractability, translational relevance, and competitive differentiation.
• Drive early portfolio progression decisions by establishing rigorous go/no-go target validation criteria.

Translational Biology & Experimental Execution:

• Develop human disease-relevant therapeutic hypotheses that connect target modulation directly to clinically meaningful outcomes.
• Translate therapeutic concepts and target product profiles (TPPs) into biologically rigorous screening cascades for internal and partnered programs.
• Profile novel chemical matter emerging from our in silico generative design pipelines, building comprehensive pre-clinical data packages.
• Embed early translational thinking around target engagement indicators, translational biomarkers, and patient stratification strategies.

Cross-Functional Collaboration with AI/ML Teams:

• Work closely with AI/ML, computational biology, and structural biology teams to design assays and experimental systems that meaningfully benchmark and evaluate AI-designed molecules.
• Provide critical biological domain expertise to ML teams to guide and inform generative models of biological systems and disease pathways.

Scientific Leadership & External Partnerships:

• Serve as the scientific lead for portfolio programs, directing scientific strategy, managing timelines, and ensuring the delivery of decision-quality data.
• Design, oversee, and manage outsourced studies with external Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and academic/co-development collaborators.
• Maintain strong awareness of global scientific advances, competitive clinical landscapes, and emerging translational technologies in neurodegeneration and diseases of aging.

Skills and qualifications

Essential:

• PhD or equivalent industrial/research experience in Neuroscience, Translational Medicine, Pharmacology, Cellular/Molecular Biology, or a related discipline.
• Deep mechanistic understanding of neurodegenerative disease biology, including cellular and molecular drivers of pathology in complex, high-unmet-need indications.
• Expert practical knowledge of translational models (in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo), patient-derived cellular systems, and the design of robust screening cascades from Target ID through Hit-to-Lead/Lead Optimisation.
• Demonstrated success in advancing therapeutic hypotheses through target validation and profiling novel chemical matter to build decision-quality data packages.
• Proven experience designing, contracting, and managing external research studies with CROs and academic collaborators.
• Experience collaborating closely with bioinformatics, cheminformatics, or computational biology teams, utilising data-driven approaches for target discovery and compound progression.
• Highly collaborative, agile, and driven to thrive in a high-velocity, interdisciplinary team environment.

Nice to have:

• Track record of driving strategic compound de-risking and SAR in close collaboration with medicinal chemistry and DMPK teams.
• Working knowledge of biophysical, biochemical, and cellular screening techniques (e.g., SPR, TR-FRET, mass spectrometry, high-content imaging) and how machine learning models interact with these assay outputs.
• Broad biological experience in diseases of aging or neuroinflammation outside classical neurodegeneration.
• Prior experience in early clinical biomarker discovery or target engagement assay development.

Culture and values

We are guided by our shared values. It's not about finding people who think and act in the same way. These values help to guide our work and will continue to strengthen it.

Thoughtful
Thoughtful at Iso is about curiosity, creativity and care. It is about good people doing good, rigorous and future-making science every single day.

Brave
Brave at Iso is about fearlessness, but it’s also about initiative and integrity. The scale of the challenge demands nothing less.

Determined
Determined at Iso is the way we pursue our goal. It’s a confidence in our hypothesis, as well as the urgency and agility needed to deliver on it. Because disease won’t wait, so neither should we.

Together
Together at Iso is about connection, collaboration across fields and catalytic relationships. It’s knowing that transformation is a group project, and remembering that what we’re doing will have a real impact on real people everywhere.

Creating an extraordinary company

We believe that to be successful we need a team with a range of skills and talents. We're building an environment where collaboration is fundamental, learning is shared and every employee feels supported and able to thrive. We value unique experiences, knowledge, backgrounds, and perspectives, and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Hybrid working

It’s hugely important for us to share knowledge and build strong relationships with each other, and we find it easier to do this if we spend time together in person. This is why we follow a hybrid model, and would require you to be able to come into the office 3 days a week (currently Tuesday, Wednesday, and one other day depending on which team you’re in). If you have additional needs that would prevent you from following this hybrid approach, we’d be happy to talk through these if you’re selected for an initial screening call.

Please note that when you submit an application, your data will be processed in line with our privacy policy.

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