Norma Morella earned her doctorate in Microbiology from UC Berkeley where she studied the plant microbiome. Her work explored which factors can shape host-associated microbial communities, from host genotype to bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria).

Norma received a WRF Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020 and moved to Seattle to conduct her research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. While at Fred Hutch, Norma investigated the complex interplay between gut bacteria, carcinogenic compounds that they produce, and bacteriophages. This work contributes to our growing understanding of how phages might be used as therapeutic tools to modulate microbial communities for human health. Currently, Norma works as a research scientist for Pivot Bio, a Berkeley-based biotech company that is replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture with a nitrogen-fixing bacterial product. Norma previously served on the Executive Board for SoundBio Lab, a nonprofit biology makerspace in Seattle, and she is an active member of Women in Bio’s Seattle Chapter.

A major area of the research in my lab is aimed at the development of biomarker-targeted small-molecule conjugates as radio-diagnostic, radio-therapeutic, and chemotherapeutic agents. Most notable are our agents targeted to the prostate cancer enzyme-biomarker known as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). In addition, we have focused on the development of pH-responsive cleavable linkers for controlled release applications. We are also interested revealing the biological consequences of non-canonical phosphorylation [e.g., phospholysine (pLys), phosphoglutamate (pGlu), phosphoaspartate (pAsp)] by kinases and xenobiotic organophosphorus toxicants, especially with respect to the formation of traceless isopeptide crosslinks in proteins that may occur as a result.

Dr. Chiang is a contracted Senior Strategic AI Advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

He obtained his doctorate from King’s College at the University of Cambridge in Statistical Computing and Cancer Biology, where he focused on error modeling of protein interactions and siRNA datasets. He is trained as a pure mathematician, having graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and started his doctoral training at the University of California at Berkeley in Representation Theory, Geometry, and Combinatorics.

Dr. Du is a materials scientist turned systems engineer advancing next-generation EUV reticle inspection technologies using electron beams.

Prior to his current position at KLA, he earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University and then joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, later promoted to Staff Scientist. A CAS Future Leader (2025) and Lindau Alumnus (Physics 2024), he has an extensive research portfolio that includes imaging ice crystals and water freezing dynamics at unprecedented (sub-)angstrom resolutions, discovering metal-like colloidal crystals, and inventing a maskless, multiplexed lithography technique for halide perovskite nanocrystals. He has a strong track record in cross-functional collaboration, team management, stakeholder engagement, and mentorship, and is a trusted leader serving professional societies, government entities, and the K–12 STEM education sector.

Dr. Du is an Associate Editor of Frontiers for Young Minds, a barrier-breaking journal publishing accessible science articles for young audiences, and serves on the Community Board of Nanoscale Horizons.

Dr. Hayashi is a Professor at the School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University (WSU). Prior to joining WSU. Dr. Hayashi was an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSOM). Dr. Hayashi received her B.S and M.S at Obihiro University in Japan, and her Ph.D. at Iwate University in Japan, mainly studying ovarian functions. She conducted postdoctoral research in Drs. Bazer/Spencer’s Lab at Texas A&M University, where she studied uterine biology to understand the molecular mechanisms regulating uterine gland development and implantation. After she became an independent researcher at SIUSOM, she further expanded her research focus to gynecological diseases, such as ovarian and uterine cancer and endometriosis, and reproductive toxicology.

The primary focus of Dr. Hayashi’s lab is to understand pathogenesis and pathophysiology in endometriosis. Endometriosis affects approximately 10% of reproductive-aged women, but there are no biomarkers and no cure, and the mechanisms of this disease remain unclear. As it is a chronic inflammatory disease, we study the mechanisms of immune cell contribution to disease establishment and progression and how it can cause endometriosis-associated chronic pain, including central sensitization and neuroinflammation. We also develop non-hormonal therapy to target pro-disease macrophages for the treatment of endometriosis and its associated chronic pain. Additionally, we study how maternal exposure to environmental factors, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals and cannabis, affects reproductive functions and germ cell development in the next generations.

Grace Huynh is the Senior Director of AI Applications in the Office of the CTO, where she leads efforts to develop computational tools that have real-world impact across healthcare and the life sciences. Prior to joining the Allen Institute, she has led research projects at Microsoft, MIT, and the Institute for Disease Modeling (now part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), with a focus on the intersection between machine learning, neuroscience and health. She received her PhD in Bioengineering at UCSF/UC Berkeley, followed by her MD at Stanford.

Dr. Harmit Malik studies genetic conflict, the competition between genes and proteins with opposing functions that drives evolutionary change. His research could have implications for a range of diseases, from HIV to cancer. As part of this work, his team developed an approach for identifying genes that divide one species from another, which could help solve the riddle of how new species evolve. Dr. Malik also studies the evolutionary processes that drive our body’s interactions with viruses, including contemporary scourges like HIV as well as ancient viruses whose fossils litter our genome. With Hutch colleagues, he has characterized the rapidly evolving interface between proteins on human cells and viruses that make us sick. This work has highlighted surprising deviations from “textbook” models of these interactions, and it is revealing gene variants that could influence our susceptibility to infection.

Yuta Masuda is the Director of Science at Allen Family Philanthropies, where he leads and manages the Environment Program focusing on ocean health, terrestrial conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Prior to joining the foundation, Yuta was a Senior Sustainable Development and Behavioral Scientist at The Nature Conservancy. His work at the Conservancy examined how policies advancing conservation and sustainable development goals impact human well-being and environmental outcomes. He has investigated topics around community-based conservation, human behavior, institutions, human health, diffusions of innovations, land tenure security, and other topics on the human dimensions of conservation and sustainable development. He has published over fifty articles on these and other topics in outlets such as Nature Sustainability, Nature Communications, Global Environmental Change, Lancet Planetary Health, Environmental Research Letters, Conservation Letters, Land Use Policy, One Earth, and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. He holds a PhD in Public Policy and Management from the University of Washington, and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Georgia.

Julia McKechnie, Ph.D., is an Associate Director in the Infectious Disease unit at AstraZeneca. As part of the Virology team, she leads and supports early-stage development of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies targeting viral pathogens.

Prior to working at AstraZeneca, Dr. McKechnie was a Senior Scientist at Icosavax Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in computationally designed virus-like particle vaccines. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Environmental Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford where she studied the innate immune response to acute dengue infection. After completing her thesis, Dr. McKechnie performed her postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center where she investigated how to genetically engineer B cells to produce therapeutic proteins such as enzymes and well-characterized neutralizing antibodies. During her academic training, Dr. McKechnie was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, funding through the University of Washington’s Diseases of Public Health Importance training grant, and a Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Dr. Ingrid Swanson Pultz is a Translational Advisor at the Institute for Protein Design.  She was Chief Scientific Officer of PvP Biologics, an IPD spin out company acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2020, and served as the CEO for PvP in its early years.  Dr. Pultz was formerly a Translational Investigator and Senior Research Fellow at the IPD, where she focused on developing the enzyme technology upon which PvP was based.  For this work, Dr. Pultz has received several competitive grants and awards including Health Innovator of the Year from Health Innovation Northwest in 2016.  She performed her graduate work on bacterial second messenger systems with Dr. Sam Miller at the UW’s Department of Microbiology.  While in graduate school, Dr. Pultz was awarded the Neal Groman Award for Excellence in Teaching and founded the UW’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team (www.igem.org).  Her current role at the IPD is to provide guidance in translating nascent technologies beyond the academic laboratory.

Dr. Aakanksha Singhvi studies glial cells, which are critical to the correct functioning of our nervous system. Every time a neuron connects to another neuron, a glial cell is there to make sure that signals transmit properly between them. Glia themselves also communicate with neurons and influence their shape and activity. Disruptions in communication between neurons and glia underpin many neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s and autism. Dr. Singhvi seeks to understand the molecules involved in glia-neuron communication, and how glia influence neuron shape and function, and, ultimately, animal behavior.

Jonathan T. Ting joined the Allen Institute in 2013 to provide electrophysiology expertise for the Human Cell Types program and to develop functional assays on human ex vivo brain slices. Ting has 15 years of experience in patch clamp electrophysiology encompassing both primary neuron cultures and acute brain slices. In his postdoctoral fellowships at Duke University and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, he studied the neural circuitry basis of psychiatric disorders and developed and characterized several transgenic mouse lines now widely employed for optogenetic control of nervous system function. Ting previously earned a Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Behavior and conducted his thesis research in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior from the University of California at Davis.

Research focus: A comprehensive analysis of the architecture and function of the human brain requires a multifaceted strategy for revealing the true complexity and diversity of cell types that reside within. It is the exquisite and complex assembly of these unique cell types into distinct functional circuits that enables us to perform essential tasks such as sensory perception, coordinated movement, cognition, and more. Although much effort has been devoted to anatomical mapping of the human brain using post-mortem tissue in both health and disease, the detailed analysis of functions subserved by individual cells within the living human brain has been more challenging to explore. To achieve this goal, we have established extensive research collaborations with local neurosurgeons in the greater-Seattle area to routinely obtain neurosurgical samples of human cortex for research purposes. The vital human brain tissue is transported to the Allen Institute and sectioned into brain slices for detailed analysis using diverse methodologies including patch clamp electrophysiology, optical imaging, single cell transcriptomic profiling, morphological reconstructions, and array tomography. We hope this effort will culminate in a comprehensive classification of cell types of the human neocortex.

Dr. Rachel Umoren is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Division Head for Research in the Division of Neonatology, University of Washington and Inpatient Medical Director for Telehealth at the Seattle Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on improving neonatal outcomes globally through simulation-based education and telemedicine. Dr. Umoren’s research has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She has published and presented internationally on virtual simulations for health professional education

David Van Valen is an Assistant Professor in Biology and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology. He received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics from MIT in 2003. In 2011, he earned a doctorate in applied physics from Caltech, where he applied single-molecule techniques to study the life cycle of bacterial viruses. He earned a medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2013. From 2014 to 2018, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where he worked on using machine learning and genomics to empower a new generation of live-cell imaging experiments.

Dr. Van Valen joined Caltech as a visiting associate in 2017 and became an assistant professor of biology and biological engineering in 2018. His group at Caltech studies how living systems and their respective viruses encode and decode information about their internal state and their environment by combining ideas from cell biology and physics with recent advances in imaging, machine learning, and genomics to make novel measurements.