Established a scalable process for the purification of challenging RNA constructs.

Directed multiple FTEs by assisting them with work prioritization, supporting a suite of custom internal software, hands-on bench assistance, and career development. Helped the company through a major growth period. Established a reliable track record by delivering on multiple milestones as well as driving diverse and challenging projects to succeed. Led the evaluation of foundry capabilities, for example by enabling a massively-high throughput mass spec screen that facilitated the successful completion of a particularly-challenging large library screening campaign.

Developed services for the high-throughput quantification of small molecules and natural products using LC/MS, GC/FID, HPLC/UV, and related techniques. Built a network of external CROs to enable the externalization of chemical synthesis. Served as subject matter expert in proposal review and initial project development.

In my role as Associate Director of Chemical Biology, I oversaw a team that was involved in the construction of combinatorial libraries of natural product analogs that entered into high-throughput screens. I led several components of a screening funnel, including the optimization of primary hits through focused analog synthesis and profiling eADME/DMPK properties. My group was also tasked with devising new assays and tool compounds that probe biological function and validate mechanism of action.

I was employed as one of the first five scientists at Warp Drive Bio, where my original role involved the isolation and purification of novel natural products from Streptomyces cultures. I devised a stable-isotope labeled biosynthetic precursor feeding experiment coupled with comparative mass spectrometry that enabled desired compounds to be identified from the milieu of other secondary metabolites. I was intimately involved in building the pipeline to determine the intracellular targets of these natural products, helping the company to grow by accomplishing several scientific milestones.

During my postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Gregory Verdine at Harvard I studied the natural product sanglifehrin A and identified inosine-5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase 2 (IMPDH2) as its intracellular target. I discovered that sanglifehrin A (in complex with its cognate binding protein cyclophilin A) does not inhibit the catalytic activity of IMPDH2, instead binding to a regulatory cystathionine-B-synthase (CBS) domain. My training with Prof. Verdine included gene cloning, recombinant protein expression, and mammalian cell culture.