Experience

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  BioSymetrics

  • Berkeley, California, United States

  • Vice President of Discovery Biology

    • Jan 2022 - Present
    • Berkeley, California, United States

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  University of California, San Francisco

  • Assistant Professor

    • 2014 - 2021

    The Kokel lab discovers neuroactive compounds and their molecular mechanisms. We develop automated behavioral assays to understand large-scale neuropharmacology. Recent studies have identified novel antipsychotic, anxiolytic, and anesthetic- related compounds (Bruni et al, 2016 Nature Chemical Biology).

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  TELEOS THERAPEUTICS LLC

  • Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

    • 2013 - 2018

    Teleos Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering new treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Our approach is based on more than a decade of academic research in zebrafish chemical biology. We combine high-throughput chemical screening technologies with complex whole organism phenotyping to identify and potentially develop novel small molecule therapeutics. Teleos technology makes large-scale behavior-based drug screens possible at a speed that would be unattainable using mice or other large model organisms; as a consequence, we believe that our approach will reduce the time and cost associated with traditional, target-based or observational CNS drug discovery.

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  Harvard Medical School

  • United States
  • Higher Education
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Assistant Professor

    • 2013 - 2014

    The Kokel lab develops new assays for discovering and classifying neuroactive compounds.

  • Biological Scientist

    • 2010 - 2013

    Secured NIH-funded research to develop an automated platform for tracking and quantifying zebrafish behaviors in high-throughput, 96-well format. The platform is a high content imaging system that combines robotic stimulus presentation with high-quality digital video capture and image processing algorithms. It generates quantitative behavioral profiles of zebrafish behavior in response to any genetic manipulation or small molecule treatment. Because behaviors integrate all neuronal signaling pathways in the intact organism, it can assess the effects of thousands of experimental conditions per day to identify genes or small molecules that perturb nervous system function through a broad variety of mechanisms.