Company

Founded in 2020, Bactobio is a London-based biotechnology company pioneering the cultivation of previously unculturable microbes using synthetic biology, next-generation sequencing, and advanced AI-driven methods. These microbes represent a vast untapped bioresource, offering significant potential for discovering novel compounds with applications across diverse industries. Driven by impact, our primary mission is to address major global challenges—such as antimicrobial resistance through the development of new antibiotics, and food security via natural, biodegradable fungicides.

Role

We are looking for passionate and driven PhD students who have an industry internship as a funded component of their doctoral program and are interested in exploring life at a dynamic biotechnology start-up. These are fully immersive, on-site placements at our London office and laboratories and last a minimum of three months.

In this role, you will explore and apply DNA large language models at Bactobio. Working with microbiological DNA sequencing data and state-of-the-art foundation models (e.g., DNABERT, Nucleotide Transformer), you’ll have the freedom to experiment with various datasets, methodologies, and evaluation techniques. Ultimately, you’ll shape the project’s direction, with opportunities to focus on areas such as model fine-tuning, the development of benchmarking tools and approaches, embedding investigation, and multimodal modelling.

Please share your expertise in these and related areas, including relevant software, programming languages, libraries, and frameworks. Ideal candidates will have deep learning experience, programming skills, and at least a basic understanding of molecular biology or genetics.

Our previous interns come from a range of programmes, including PIPS, iCASE, and MRC LID. Read about recent internship experiences on our website.

Team

Bactobio is a vibrant, tight-knit, and highly collaborative team of about fifty people. We sit and work together and take genuine interest in one another's work. You can expect to collaborate daily with wet-lab scientists, data scientists, bioinformaticians, and software developers, while also gaining exposure to our broader business journey.

Everyone who writes code at Bactobio contributes daily to the same shared codebase. We care deeply about cultivating an environment—and codebase—that is productive and enjoyable to collaborate within. We strive for best practices with sensible implementations. This includes git-based version control, thorough unit and integration testing, code review, and transparent communication around design decisions. If you haven't had exposure to working in such an environment, it's great professional experience to walk away with.

Benefits

Brand new, modern labs in Central London with dedicated office space, large balconies and 360’ views of the London skyline

The chance to be part of a fun, multicultural, kind, and ambitious crowd that are impact-driven

Daily access to academic leaders, business leaders, and unicorn founders

Flexible start and finish times, with the option to begin your day between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m.

Diverse team of colleagues (check out our website to meet us)

Weekly team activities including board games, sports activities, and socials on Fridays

Complimentary snacks, fruits, tea, coffee, soft drinks,...

Access to 1000s of training courses through Udemy & Codeacademy, with an allowance for both personal development and work-related training

Bike2Work scheme

Employee Assistance Programme offering structured counselling, life and career coaching, legal and financial advise

Bactobio

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