Hello!
I'm the Co-founder and CEO of an immune biology platform startup (in stealth) in the Bay Area. I'm an entrepreneurial scientist with a unique scientific perspective that integrates computational, evolutionary, and molecular approaches to turn fundamental science into real world impact. I love taking early science from 0 to 1, and building teams that execute relentlessly.
I'm trained as an experimental and computational biologist. My background is in host-parasite co-evolution, and I have applied this lens to my work in CRISPR, (meta)genomics, and early stage venture creation.
CRISPR:
I did my PhD at UCSF in Joe Bondy-Denomy's lab, studying viral anti-CRISPR proteins that could be used to make CRISPR-Cas gene editing safer. I've made fundamental discoveries about how viruses deploy these proteins to inhibit bacterial immunity12, and have also done more applied work discovering novel anti-CRISPRs with potential therapeutic activity3.
Genomics:
During my time as Miller Fellow in Jill Banfield's lab, I computational approaches to mine metagenomes for bacterial viruses that use alternative genetic codes. These viruses have genetic material that is incompatible with their host translation systems, and I used comparative viral genomics to propose a novel role for genetic recoding as a mechanism of viral translational regulation4.
Venture creation:
Most recently, I led a scientific team focused on venture creation at Arcadia Science, where we used evolutionary principles to accelerate therapeutic discovery. I lead projects in capsid discovery for gene delivery, new DNA and RNA chemistries for nucleic acid therapeutics, and discovery of novel immune modulators sourced from parasitic organisms56.
Used metagenomics to discover hundreds of bacterial viruses that use non-canonical genetic codes. Faculty host: Jill Banfield
Discovered novel anti-CRISPR mechanisms used by bacterial viruses to inhibit the CRISPR-Cas immune system. Doctoral advisor: Joe Bondy-Denomy
Graduated with honors. Conducted undergraduate research on genome and transcriptome evolution of the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Advisor: Jon P. Boyle
We built an end-to-end pipeline to discover structural mimicry between hosts and parasites, and benchmarked it using known viral mimics.
We analyzed the evolutionary signatures across thousands of parasite gene families, identifying 10 gene families in ticks predicted to suppress itch, pain, and inflammation.
We performed the first metagenomic survey of alternative genetic codes in bacteriophages, and proposed recoding as a novel translational regulatory mechanism.
We identified a bacterial pathway that regulates CRISPR-Cas activity, and discovered that phages hijack this pathway to repress CRISPR-Cas immunity themselves.
We discovered and characterized novel CRISPR-Cas inhibitors, including the first inhibitors of therapeutically-relevant type V (Cas12a) systems.
We discovered that bacteriophages cooperate to overcome bacterial immunity, the first example of altruistic behavior in viruses.
My work seeks to leverage the natural diversity of biology for real world impact. I am deeply motivated to translate scientific breakthroughs into solutions that can transform lives at scale.