Devising and implementing company-wide approaches to enhance viral-mediated delivery and traceability, combining the in-house high-throughput Golden Gate cloning system and multiple readouts (flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, Western blot) for efficient screening. In addition, applying CRISPR to generate engineered cell lines and line management experience.

Led the efforts to establish relevant models/readouts for the metabolic disease project in-house, including sourcing human primary cells and lentivirus/AAV transduction, 3D organoid models, 3D confocal microscopy, ELISAs and single-cell sequencing.In addition, interacted with external KOLs and CROs to validate in-house in vitro data and progress promising lead candidates to in vivo testing, and contributed to fundraising efforts for the project/company (investor diligence calls, grant applications).

Collaborated with Business Development to identify new therapeutic indications for transcription factor-mediated cellular transdifferentiation predicted by the Mogrify algorithm, establishing relationships with KOLs and assembling initial scientific plans. Proposed indications in the metabolic disease and otology fields progressed to preclinical stage and have become two of the three main current therapeutic projects in the company.

Studied the role of transcriptional repressors in cell identity maintenance, using direct reprogramming (fibroblast to neurons, hepatocytes, cardiomyocytes and skeletal muscle) to investigate the impact of a variety of candidate transcription factors originated from a bioinformatic screen. Generated mechanistic insight on the lead transcription factor candidate through a combination of cutting-edge (single-cell sequencing, chromatin profiling [Cut&Run] and chromatin accessibility [ATAC-seq]) and standard techniques (lentiviral transduction, shRNA, protein/transcript measurement, microscopy).

Demonstrated a direct cardioprotective role of the cytokine oncostatin M through in vitro experiments (culture and cytokine stimulation of primary mouse cardiomyocytes, survival assays, bulk RNAseq) and in vivo experiments (produced recombinant cytokines used in mouse myocardial infarction model)

Assessed the molecular and structural features influencing receptor specificity of an Interleukin-6 class cytokine (oncostatin M) through stable cell line generation, chimeric protein design, molecular cloning, recombinant protein production and cell stimulation assays

Acquired a deep understanding of the scientific grant funding process and the diversity of funding opportunities while coordinating institution-wide proposals, managing internal calls for grants and providing assistance to institute researchers in applying to and reporting on national and international grants.