Cell Culture Media Intern

About us

At the forefront of farming and food, UPSIDE Foods is innovating new ways to produce real meat, without the need to breed, feed and slaughter animals. Our process begins with an animal cell, which is cultivated and harvested as meat. The founding company of the industry, UPSIDE Foods is a mission-driven organization focused on bringing to meat lovers an authentic product that is truly humane, sustainably produced, nutritious and delicious! We are now expanding our team of dedicated professionals across disciplines to make better meat for a better world.

About this internship

The Research Intern (Cell Culture Media) will be responsible for supporting a project focused on understanding and identifying media components to improve the sensory profile of the cultivated-meat product. This role reports into the  Cell Culture Media team and will support media development and characterization for the cultivation of cell-based meat. You should be capable of building hypotheses, designing, troubleshooting, and executing experiments under supervision while employing critical thinking and organizational skills. This laboratory-based position requires performing wet-lab experiments, followed by analysis and interpretation of the data, presentation of findings to the Cell Culture Media Team, and suggest follow-up experiments. The ideal candidate would be someone creative, enthusiastic, a fast learner with problem-solving skills.

Duties include

• Build scientific hypotheses based on literature and previous experimental findings, and design experiments targeting those hypotheses. 
• Set up and execute experiments - done independently or with guidance from team/project lead for complex experiments 
• Maintain accurate and thorough e-documentation of experimental designs, execution techniques, and results.
• Presentation of findings to the Cell Culture Media team.
• Communication with team members and other departments internally, and with external parties if needed. 

About you

• In 2nd year of Masters in cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering or closely related science 
• Working knowledge or hands-on experience of animal cell/tissue culture processes; and basic safety and good laboratory practices
• Ability and willingness to follow Standard Operating Procedures and procedural recommendations from team members.
•  A fast learner, willing to learn new techniques and assays needed to perform their duties.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, comfortable presenting finds to teams.
• Maintains laboratory notebooks with detailed experimental designs and results 
• Strong intellectual curiosity and resourcefulness with a bias for action
• Competent in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word.  Experience with statistical software like JMP, Minitab, Simca, etc. is desirable

Length of internship

• 10-12 weeks

UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.