Robert Esterberg Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, Ma

Lab head in the Ophthalmology department with a focus on retinal degeneration. My team develops and validates novel phenotypic assays, performs screens, and validates targets.

Seattle, Wa

I operated as part of an interdisciplinary collaboration with several faculty and staff at UW exploring therapeutic approaches to certain types of hearing loss. Through my tenure here, we successfully identified key events governing the death of these cells, as well as compounds that effectively prevent cell death and hearing loss in animal models.DNA editing and gene delivery:• CRISPR/Cas9 and ZFN• AAV and Lentiviral delivery• Editing efficiency analysis: CEL-1, High resolution melt (HRM), quantitative PCRMicroscopy:• Confocal• Spinning disk • Timelapse in vivo imaging • Calcium imaging (GCaMPs, GECO, Cameleons, Rhod-2)• Fluorophore engineering and targeting• FRET-based protein interaction• FLIPModel systems:• Cell culture, Organotypic tissue culture, Zebrafish, MouseBio-process development:• Early stage bench and recombinant protein production• Process optimizationData Science/Analysis:• Regression, Large scale analysis, SQL (basic), MATLAB (basic), Python (basic)Data Visualization:•MS Excel, GraphPad Prism, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

• Identified markets and calculated revenue forecasts of faculty inventions • Improved in-house legal counsel efficiency by drafting provisional patent applications on inventions ranging from medical devices to computer software• Increased faculty invention disclosures through targeted relationships with new faculty

• Participated in interdisciplinary collaboration identifying novel interactions of cell signaling proteins • Identified novel planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway members responsible for embryonic development in zebrafish and mouse• Published first author manuscript in PNAS• Mentored two undergraduate honors students across two years

• Developed sustainable teaching module for undergraduate class of > 500 students illustrating effects of common chemicals on fetal development • Focused on cell signaling pathways• Cultivated students’ critical thinking and communication skills via group-based problem solving• Collaborated with faculty from various disciplines to standardize content of introductory level biology courses

Ph.D, Genetics And Molecular Biology

Activities and Societies: NIH genetics training grant, multiple presentation awards at regional and national conferences Studied cell.

B.S, Biology, Magna Cum Laude

Activities and Societies: Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Sigma