Dawn Thompson

Dawn Thompson Email and Phone Number

SVP, Head of Platform Development at Empress Therapeutics @ Empress Therapeutics
Dawn Thompson's Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, United States
Dawn Thompson's Contact Details

Dawn Thompson personal email

n/a

Dawn Thompson phone numbers

About Dawn Thompson

I’m a senior scientist and corporate vice president with 20+ years of experience leading collaborative teams through cutting-edge exploration in the fields of biology, genetics, and genomics. Building technology platforms for early-stage companies from the ground up, I’ve developed innovative techniques across the pharmaceutical, living medicine, commodity chemical, and agricultural industries. I drive stakeholder engagement, designing business strategies that raised $100M+ for multiple companies through investor financing and strategic relationships with Fortune 500 partners. Recognized for my contributions to innovation and mentorship, I’ve received awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Genomic Centers for Infectious Disease, and the Broad Institute. I’m an active international presenter, advisory board member, and editorial board member, and have authored and contributed to 30+ publications. I continuously explore new frontiers blending my expertise in evolution and genomics with an interest in microbes. As VP of Microbiology and Automation at LifeMine Therapeutics, I built scaled platforms for fermentation, strain engineering and next generation sequencing (NGS) to crack the evolutionary code of biosynthetic gene cluster encoded small bioactive molecules. As the head of NGS at Gingko Bioworks, I used state-of-the art methods to drive organism engineering, identifying common themes and design principles to create new organisms for our customers. I continue advancing the goal of innovation in biological engineering and identifying green alternatives that decrease costs, labor, and resource use.Key Accomplishments:• Initiated global conversations on scientific advancements as chair and speaker at 18+ international conferences, and scientific advisory board member at Genomics and SynBio Institutes. • Led collaborative effort between Gingko Bioworks and Fortune 500 partners, delivering technical success to customer’s in-house product. Received patent approval for engineered microbe deployed to production.• Developed powerful platform for comparative functional genomics at Broad Institute, constructing novel, experimental methods to study regulatory frameworks to elucidate principles of regulatory circuits evolution underlying cellular phenotypes.Specializations: microbiology, synthetic biology, CRISPR-based strain engineering, fermentation, automation, functional genomics, molecular genetics, NGS, RNA seq, ChIP seq, gene regulation, experimental evolution, single cell genomics, regulatory circuits, transcriptomics

Dawn Thompson's Current Company Details
Empress Therapeutics

Empress Therapeutics

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SVP, Head of Platform Development at Empress Therapeutics
Dawn Thompson Work Experience Details
  • Empress Therapeutics
    Svp, Head Of Platform Development
    Empress Therapeutics Jun 2023 - Present
    Watertown, Massachusetts, Us
  • Lifemine Therapeutics
    Vp, Head Of Microbiology And Automation At Lifemine Therapeutics
    Lifemine Therapeutics Sep 2019 - Aug 2023
    Cambridge, Ma, Us
    Leadership and Strategic Platform Design:• Manage $4M budget and 28 staff (research associates to directors), formulating technical strategies for projects advancing biopharmaceutical success through genomic drug discovery.• Drive development of “biology at scale” production pipelines across entire discovery platform from fermentation to sequencing, chemistry, and target engagement assays.• Built NGS platform, cracking evolutionary code of biosynthetic gene clusters in microbes that make bioactive small molecules toward therapeutics. To reduce hit to lead (H2L) time by half, from years to months.• Led cross-functional teams in strain collection and engineering, fermentation, automation, and laboratory information management system (LIMS) infrastructure. Scaled engineering of 8 strains/week to 300.
  • Lifemine Therapeutics
    Vp, Interim Head Of Synthetic Biology
    Lifemine Therapeutics Nov 2019 - Nov 2020
    Cambridge, Ma, Us
    Directed build out and operation of Bio-manufacturing foundry to accelerate discovery of bioactive molecule for therapeutics. Including high throughput automated Design, Build, strain engineering, Expression and NGS workflows.
  • Directed Genomics
    Chief Scientific Officer
    Directed Genomics Mar 2019 - Sep 2019
    Watertown, Massachusetts, Us
    Innovation and Strategic Planning:• Led scientific vision and business strategy to create NGS and biosensor-based diagnostic assays for research, translational, clinical, and agricultural applications. Expanded reach to aquaculture applications. • Employed diagnostic technologies for crop genotyping and pathogen detection to deploy real time intervention strategies in the field, preventing catastrophic crop failure and economic impact.• Optimized molecular biology protocols to bridge gap between current technology and next generation solutions.Business Development and Partnerships:• Collaborated with executive leadership to develop strategic plan, identifying and cementing new partnerships that expanded company reach to nascent aquaculture applications. • Negotiated capital equipment coordination across teams, maximizing budget efficiency.
  • Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc.
    Head Of Next Generation Sequencing, Senior Biological Engineer
    Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. Aug 2015 - Mar 2019
    Boston, Ma, Us
    Alliance Development, Management, and Technical Engineering:• Partnered with organizational leaders to solve cross-functional challenges unique to engineering novel organism factories to grow products by fermentation in pharma, agriculture, and electronics markets.• Built multidisciplinary team offering diverse portfolio of sequencing applications, including fully automated DNA sequencing, genome assembly, and RNA and microRNA sequencing.• Directed team of 11 staff and $2M budget to advance scientific vision, leading company engagement on DARPA Synergistic Discovery and Design (SD2) program.• Developed HT synthetic biology workflows for high throughput microbial strain engineering.Program Lead, External Partnerships
  • Broad Institute
    Associate Director Cell Circuits Program
    Broad Institute Jan 2012 - Aug 2015
    Cambridge, Ma, Us
    Leadership, Team Management, and Partner Collaboration:• Directed 12-person team (BS to Ph.D. levels) in technological development of genome-scale molecular biology processes, generating high-quality data, biological insights, and data-driven decisions.• Liaised directly on new collaborations with Broad Technology Labs (BTL), expanding comparative regulatory circuit reconstruction from microbes to vertebrate models (mammals and Cichlid fish).• Led research activities of major program initiatives, including Center for Cell Circuits and NHGRI-funded Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science (CEGS), meeting all grant objectives and milestones.Innovation and Development:• Advanced scientific vision and technological development toward systematically defining genetic and molecular circuits of a wide range of cell types. Integral partner of MIT-Broad Foundry. • Developed CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering in microbial and mammalian cells.• Applied microfluidic technologies for single-cell genomics to successfully meet DARPA grant milestones. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:• Mentored under-represented and underserved university students, guiding promising individuals through career exploration and professional development.• Recruited top talent as selection committee member for Diversity Initiative, securing grants for successful students accepted to graduate programs and STEM careers.
  • Broad Institute
    Senior Group Leader
    Broad Institute Sep 2006 - Aug 2015
    Cambridge, Ma, Us
    • Innovation and Project Management:• Pioneered the development of RNA-seq methodologies for transcriptome reconstruction and quantification based on short Illumina-sequencing reads from genomes of poorly characterized organisms• Served as project lead for single-cell transcriptomics in immune and microbial (yeast and bacterial) cells.• Developed methods (live microscopy and host-pathogen RNA seq) to study interactions of live pathogens with immune cells from single host-pathogen interactions to the population scale.• Targeted identification of both pathogen and host determinants that control infection.• Sequenced isolates sampled consecutively from patients clinically treated with antifungals. • Analyzed genetic dynamics that accompany the appearance of drug resistance during oral and systemic candidiasis in human HIV patients.• Identified novel antifungal drug targets.

Dawn Thompson Skills

Genetics Genomics Molecular Biology Biochemistry Biotechnology Functional Genomics Cell Cell Biology Sequencing Assay Development Bioinformatics Molecular Cloning Computational Biology Qpcr Dna Sequencing Drug Discovery High Throughput Screening Dna Sequence Analysis Systems Biology Protein Expression Proteomics Cancer Research Microarray Analysis Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

Dawn Thompson Education Details

  • Harvard University
    Harvard University
    Cell/Cellular And Molecular Biology
  • Institute Of Molecular Biology University Of Oregon
    Institute Of Molecular Biology University Of Oregon
    Molecular Biology
  • University Of New Hampshire
    University Of New Hampshire
    Biology

Frequently Asked Questions about Dawn Thompson

What company does Dawn Thompson work for?

Dawn Thompson works for Empress Therapeutics

What is Dawn Thompson's role at the current company?

Dawn Thompson's current role is SVP, Head of Platform Development at Empress Therapeutics.

What is Dawn Thompson's email address?

Dawn Thompson's email address is dt****@****etx.com

What is Dawn Thompson's direct phone number?

Dawn Thompson's direct phone number is (617) 714*****

What schools did Dawn Thompson attend?

Dawn Thompson attended Harvard University, Institute Of Molecular Biology University Of Oregon, University Of New Hampshire.

What skills is Dawn Thompson known for?

Dawn Thompson has skills like Genetics, Genomics, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Functional Genomics, Cell, Cell Biology, Sequencing, Assay Development, Bioinformatics, Molecular Cloning.

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