Nic Berns, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

Carlsbad, Ca, Us

South San Francisco, California, United States

• Led multiple drug discovery programs in collaboration with an external partner, focusing on both antibody and small molecule modalities for neurological disease.• Coordinated cross-functional internal and external teams to progress project from inception to delivery of clinical candidate in less than 4 years.• Drug discovery subject matter expert for genetics database business development work.• Successfully nominated a target based on a novel gene-disease association, relevant biology, and first-in-class potential in an indication with high unmet medical need. • Developed and executed cell-based assays for antibody screening and potency ranking, providing critical data for lead panel selection.• Designed and executed qPCR and RNAseq experiments to understand target MoA and identify potential biomarkers.• Defined strategy for soluble biomarker assays to detect target engagement in preclinical models.• Contributed to pre-IND studies for a discovery program in asthma, including inventorship on antibody composition of matter patent• Delivered decision-enabling data on drug potency by developing flow cytometry-based intracellular signaling assays and cytokine release assays in purified immune cells • Led and contributed to in human-genetics-driven target proposals in multiple disease areas

South San Francisco, California, United States

South San Francisco

Liqun Luo Lab

• Designed and conducted research on the role of cell surface proteins in the development of specific neural circuits in the hippocampus. • Performed viral-genetic manipulations and circuit tracing to identify cell-type requirements for Teneurin-3 in hippocampal wiring specificity.• Identified novel alternative splicing in the developing hippocampus and isoform-specific interactions of Teneurin-3 in vitro using cell-aggregation assays.• First-author paper published in Nature. RT-PCR, mammalian cell culture, cell-based protein interaction assays, multiple fragment DNA assembly, protein expression and affinity purification, in vivo conditional genetic knockout and neural circuit tracing.

Liqun Luo Lab

• Used state-of-the-art neural circuit tracing tools to characterize cortical circuitry and study the role of activity in shaping circuit wiring in the mammalian brain.• This work resulted in a co-first author paper in Nature Neuroscience.Molecular cloning, mouse genetics, genome engineering, virus design and production, custom data analysis in MATLAB, neural circuit tracing, stereotactic surgery.

Drosophila genetics, neural development, RNAi screen, immunohistochemistry, ELISA

Phd, Neurosciences

Bachelor'S Degree, Biochemistry And Molecular Biology