Overview

Entrepreneurship is a key avenue for translating scientific breakthroughs into real-world solutions. The HS Chau Women in Enterprising Science Program at the Innovative Genomics Institute (周凱旋女科學家企業計畫) is an exciting new opportunity for researchers who are committed to promoting gender equity in bio-entrepreneurship.

Located on the UC Berkeley campus, the Women in Enterprising Science (WIES) program supports individuals whose work involves the development of solutions for some of the world’s greatest problems, and who strive to develop their ideas commercially for the benefit of the public. WIES Fellows must align with the IGI’s mission of bridging revolutionary genome-editing and biotechnology tool development to affordable and accessible solutions in human health, climate, and agriculture. 

The WIES program is made possible thanks to generous philanthropic support from the foundation of Solina Chau Hoi Shuen (co-founder of Horizons Ventures in Hong Kong).

Learn more about the WIES program, eligibility requirements, and how to apply here.

2022 WIES Fellows

Navneet Matharu

Navneet Matharu is an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, the Institute for Human Genetics, and School of Pharmacy at UC San Francisco, and  is a co-founder of Regel Therapeutics Inc, a gene therapy startup based in Berkeley CA and Cambridge, MA. As a WIES fellow, Matharu is working to target genetic diseases caused by gene dosage defects, where a copy of a gene is inactivated or deleted, resulting in physiological symptoms. Gene dosage effects on the X chromosome disproportionately affect women. Matharu’s previous work provided a proof of concept approach to addressing gene dosage effects using CRISPR, and she will further develop this approach during her WIES fellowship.

Jenny Hamilton 

Jenny Hamilton is currently a postdoc in the Doudna lab at the University of California, Berkeley where she works to develop novel approaches for delivering CRISPR-based genome editing tools. Hamilton’s project for the WIES fellowship will explore a new method of improving targeted genome engineering in humans using CRISPR. Currently, CRISPR therapies can be limited by our ability to deliver genome editing tools to disease-relevant cell types. Hamilton’s work builds on her research on viral-like particles (VLPs), where she has demonstrated the ability to target delivery of genome-editing molecules by harnessing the natural abilities of viruses. Precise, in-vivo delivery of CRISPR to specific cells and tissues will further enable new human therapies and lower the cost of treatment.

Lin Du

Lin Du is currently a postdoc in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, where she works on scalable fabrication of biosensor arrays. For Du’s WIES fellowship, she aims to develop synthetic DNA biosensors for precise detection of hundreds of species of viruses simultaneously using aptamers. Aptamers are synthetic nucleic acids used for detection and capture that can be rapidly and reliably designed, optimized for both diagnostics and therapeutic purposes. Aptamer-based platforms could prove to be transformative and broadly applicable in detection and monitoring of infectious diseases, as well as potentially transferable to other medical and environmental applications.

Follow along with the WIES Fellows and how they are progressing on the IGI's social media channels (see bottom of page for links).

More Information & Contact

For more information on the WIES program, eligibility requirements, and how to apply, please click here.

For any questions about the WIES program, application process, or technical issues, please contact claricesouza@berkeley.edu