Research Overview

My research has spanned multiple disease areas (from oncology to neurodegeneration) and multiple therapeutic modalities (from small molecules to one-and-done gene therapies). What has been consistent, is the recurring theme of accelerated screening. Most of my work involves running/analyzing a parallelized experiment (multiple hypotheses tested in a single tube), and trying to derive a functional insight (does the drug(s) work?). In more technical terms, my research tends to make heavy use of next-generation sequencing and DNA synthesis as methods to read and write the language of life.

Given the similarities between DNA and natural language, there’s a lot of really exciting and enabling technology developments on the computational side of things as well. I see parallelized data collection and novel AI tools as extremely complementary, as large-scale data collection naturally lends itself to training large models of dna/rna/protein function.

overview
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Work at Eli Lilly

I was previously an Advisor at Prevail, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly focused on genetic therapies for neurodegeneration. At Lilly, I led development of parallelized screens and genomics assays to rapidly optimize AAV capsids/payloads. I really enjoyed working at Lilly, and learned a lot about how to take drug candidates from idea to commercial product.

Select Graduate Work

AAV Engineering

AAV Engineering
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Peptide Discovery and Engineering

Peptide Discovery and Engineering
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CDK Proteins as Drug Targets: Finding Combination Therapies

Cyclin-Dependent Kinases in Cancer
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Some Very Old (pre-PhD) Work

Immunotherapeutic Enzyme Engineering

Kynureninase Engineering
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Genetic Engineering for Immunology

Immune Engineering
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