Once a Scientist

Stacie Calad-Thomason is Head of BioPharma Labs and Manufacturing Business Development at NVIDIA. She has a PhD in Chemistry from UC Irvine and a B.A. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. Topics & Timecodes: Physical AI Tools (Omniverse, Cosmos, Isaac, Groot) [04:46] Lab Automation Bottlenecks [06:20] Simulation vs Physical AI in Biology [09:42] Stacy's PhD Journey & Serendipitous Discovery...

Ira Hoffman is the CEO of HighRes. He has a M.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Physics/Mathematics from the University of Vermont.  OUTLINE: [00:00] - Introduction to collaborative robots and safe human-robot coexistence [01:52] - CEO of Hi Res (formerly Hi Res BioSolutions), 20-year journey in lab automation [03:36] - Deep diving into AI strategy and product development [05:23] - From large-s...

Episode 93. Jason Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. He has a Ph. D. in Biological Engineering and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. References : https://www.ginkgo.bio/autonomous-lab OUTLINE: 00:00 – From Jurassic Park Pilled to MIT 03:00 – Founding Ginkgo During the 2008 Crash 07:00 – Tom Knight & Thinking About Biolog...

Episode 92. Ashlee Vance is a renowned tech and science reporter, filmmaker, and founder of Core Memory, a podcast and blog that chronicles the lives and discoveries of scientists and engineers (https://www.corememory.com/). He wrote the definitive biography on Elon Musk and has been documenting the modern space race and recent developments in AI, among other things.

Episode 91. Michael Koeris is the Director of the Biotechnologies Office at DARPA. Michael completed his PhD at Boston University and did postdoctoral research in synthetic biology at MIT. He spent time early in his career at Flagship Pioneering, is a former founder and executive of multiple biotechs,  and was formerly a professor at the Keck Graduate Institute.

Episode 90. Barry Bunin is the CEO and President at Collaborative Drug Discovery, which he founded 20 years ago. Prior to that, Barry was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Eli Lilly. He completed his PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry at UC Berkeley and his bachelor's degree in chemistry at Columbia University. To learn more about CDD:  https://www.collaborativedrug.com/ai-drug-discovery#Bioisosteric-...

Seemay Chou is co-founder and CEO at Arcadia Science, Board Member at Astera Institute, and Board Chairperson at The Navigation Fund. Seemay was previously an assistant professor at UCSF and completed her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley.

Episode 88. Eugene Yeo is a Professor at UC San Diego and is building a scientific ecosystem in San Diego. He runs the Innovation Center at Sanford Stem Cell Institute, is Scientific Director at the Sanford Consortium, Chief Scientist at the Sanford labs for Innovative Medicines, and Director of UC San Diego’s Center for RNA Technologies and Therapeutics.

Episode 87.  Sudarshan Pinglay is a researcher at the University of Washington and faculty at the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology (SeaHub). He did his PhD at New York University and bachelor's degree at Johns Hopkins. Jesse Gray is a Senior Director at SeaHub. He previously worked in industry at Ascidian Therapeutics and as a professor at Harvard Medical School. Jesse completed his PhD at U...

Episode 86. Prachee Avasthi is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Arcadia Science and Head of Open Science at the Astera Institute. Prachee was previously a professor at Dartmouth and University of Kansas. She completed a PhD in Neuroscience at University of Utah and her bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Episode 85. Fay Lin is a Senior Editor at GEN Biotechnology. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular, and Structural Biology at UCLA and undergrad in Biology at NYU with minors in Computer Science and Chemistry. GEN Biotechnology website:  https://home.liebertpub.com/genbio Call for Papers: Special Issue in AI in Biotechnology:  https://home.liebertpub.com/cfp/special-issue-artificial-int...

Episode 84. Maryann Martone is an emeritus professor of neuroscience at UC San Diego. She received her BA from Wellesley College in Biological Psychology and Ancient Greek and her PhD in Neuroscience from the UC San Diego

Anand Muthusamy is a Fellow at Convergent Research, where he's l aying the groundwork for a focused research organization (FRO) to monitor the real-time activity of biomarkers in humans. Anand is a chemist and neuroscientist. He recently completed his PhD at Caltech, worked at Janelia Research Campus, and did his undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out his recent paper on bioRx...

Episode 82. Alexander Titus is a professor at USC, doing research at the intersection of biology and AI. He completed his PhD in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences at Dartmouth. He's also the founder of Bioeconomy.xyz and advises the U.S. Government on AI and national security. Titus spent time at McKinsey and Google and helped build Colossal Biosciences and Form Bio. 

Episode 81. Ashley Ruba is the founder of After Academia and a Human Factors Engineer at Arthrex. Ashley did her PhD in developmental psychology at the University of Washington and her  undergrad degree at Duke University.   Show Notes:  Infant language and emotional development lab  [02:00] NIH NRSA Institutional Postdoc Training Grant (T32) [03:48] Ashey’s academic story [01:45] Leaving academia...

Episode 80. Amy Kruse is Chief Investment Officer at Satori Capital and a Venture Partner at Prime Movers Lab. Amy completed her PhD in Neuroscience at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After leaving the bench, Amy spent time as a Program Manager at DARPA and has worked in various operating roles in the neurotech industry.

Episode 79. Sammi Sison is co-president of Nucleate, an international student-led organization designed to help scientists kick off careers in entrepreneurship, business development, and venture capital. Sammi is a PhD student at UC San Diego where she studies translational processing in the brain. 

Episode 78. Kim Edwards, my partner, is the guest interviewer. We talk about motivations for starting a company. Check out the journey in real-time on my newsletter:  transitionstates.substack.com

Episode 77. Jun Axup is Chief Operating Officer at E11 Bio, a Focused Research Organization. She is an entrepreneur and former Chief Scientific Officer and Partner at IndiBio. She's also a musician, artist, and community builder. Jun completed her PhD in Chemical Biology at Scripps Research.  Check out some of her awesome projects at her personal website:  https://junaxup.com/

Episode 76. We turn the table in this episode. William Marks, a longtime friend, interviews me in 2020 on the motivations behind getting into neuroscience and starting a podcast

Episode 75. Andrew Akbashev is a Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University and completed a postdoc at Stanford University. If you're not already, follow him on LinkedIn, X or YouTube for insights into navigating academia and science careers Timestamps:  00:15:14 How to pick a t...

Episode 74. Clarice Aiello is the Principal Investigator of the Quantum Biology lab at UCLA. She completed a PhD in Electrical Engineering at MIT and did postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and UC Berkeley.  Check out this article she wrote about quantum biology for the American Physical Society:  https://physics.aps.org/articles/v16/79 To learn more about quantum mechanics, click here:   https:/...

Episode 73. Julio de Unamuno IV is the Founder & CEO of LabFellows and Executive Director of HomeLab, the biotech accelerator at UC San Diego's Center for Novel Therapeutics. He did his undergrad in Biochemistry at the University of San Diego and an MBA at the UC San Diego, Rady School of Management. 

Episode 72. Gertrude Nonterah is a Medical Communications professional at Thermo Fisher and the creator of The Bold PhD, where she helps PhDs navigate non-academic careers. Gee did a postdoc at UC San Diego, PhD at Temple University, and undergrad degrees at Virginia Commonwealth University and PennWest Edinboro.  Check out her blog and newsletter at: www.theboldphd.com

Episode 71. SK Sharma is the Chief Analytics and AI Officer at Universal Music Group and an Entrepreneur in Residence at UC San Diego. SK completed his PhD at Caltech in Biophysical Chemistry and Biological/Chemical Physics. He has held senior executive roles across investment banking, strategy consulting and venture capital. Remarkably, SK continues to publish biomedical research in academic jour...