Nelson Masota studied Pharmacy at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania, where he completed his Bachelor of Pharmacy studies in 2013. He subsequently completed an MSc in Drug Discovery and Regulation at MUHAS in 2017. He then joined Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany, as a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Pharmacy and Food Chemistry and the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB), where he worked under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Holzgrabe from 2018 to 2023. His doctoral research, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), focused on the discovery and development of antibacterial agents from natural sources and nature-inspired chemical synthesis to address multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. He currently serves as a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania. Since June 2026, he has been a Georg Forster Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the Microbial Natural Products Department at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS).

His research focuses on the discovery of novel antibiotics from underexplored microbial resources. At HIPS, he investigates myxobacterial extract and genome libraries using metabolomics-, genomics-, and bioactivity-guided approaches to identify natural products with activity against priority bacterial pathogens. In addition, he conducts research in Tanzania aimed at exploring unique soil ecosystems as sources of underexplored antibiotic-producing microorganisms.Through the integration of microbial cultivation, natural product chemistry, and genome-based discovery approaches, his work seeks to uncover new bacterial producers and bioactive compounds that may contribute to the development of future anti-infective therapies while strengthening antibiotic discovery research in Tanzania.