My career and personal scientific interests are focused on the use of biochemical and molecular biological tools to discover and develop solutions and products in a variety of medical and industrial setting. These areas have included military medicine, vaccines, antibiotics discovery, biological therapeutics, diagnostics, gene discovery, and industrial biotechnology. I have successfully taken research and leadership roles in multifaceted programs, leading discovery efforts in multifaceted disciplines whose research goals covered areas such as: vaccine development for protections against biothreat agents including anthrax, plague, and melioidosis, discovery and development of novel antibiotics active against Burkholderia pseudomallei, and PCR based detection system to identify Anthrax spores. I have developed a genome-based detection method specific to Bacillus anthracis spores as well as developing several technical capabilities from the concept to successful concrete outcomes. During my employment at Maxygen I initiated and acted as the P.I. and program manager for a DARPA program that developed vaccines based on heterologous expression of vaccine antigens on the surface of B. subtilis spores. During the period I worked for the Naval Medical Research Medical Countermeasures program I functioned as laboratory head of the vaccine group as well as an IPA and Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR). While working for Evolva I led two major projects, the first was a discovery program to identify a novel antibiotic and the second was the production of a biochemical pathway to produce a synthetic flavor in yeast.