Myeong-Je obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Agronomy at Seoul National University and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was a postdoc/specialist in PMB at UC Berkeley and became VP of Byotix, Inc. He later worked at DuPont Pioneer for 11 years prior to joining the IGI in 2016 to run the Plant Genomics and Transformation facility.

Kevin holds a B.A. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and received his Ph.D. from Jennifer Doudna’s lab at UC Berkeley in 2017. Kevin’s doctoral research focused on understanding the structure of RNA-binding proteins. He joined the IGI in June 2017 to assist in science communication and create educational tools for fellow scientists and the public.

Diane has a graduate degree in Applied Linguistics from Georgetown University, a CA bilingual teaching credential, and completed a teacher apprenticeship program at Harvard University. Prior to joining the IGI, Diane taught English at many educational levels, worked as a congressional assistant, and consulted for a variety of educational publishers.

Ariana holds a B.A. in Biology from Barnard College. She worked as a lab manager for Florian Krammer’s group at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC until moving back to the best coast to join the IGI in September 2016. She also manages the Wilson and Staahl research groups.

Megan has a B.A. in Biology from Brown University and received her Ph.D. from Jennifer Doudna’s lab at UC Berkeley in 2016, where she studied mechanisms of CRISPR immunity in bacteria. She joined the IGI in September 2016 to handle scientific communications, hoping to bridge the gap between researchers and the public.

Jason received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Davis in June 2017. While at Davis, he studied autophagy and ran drug discovery experiments with BRET (Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer) in an effort to find cancer-inhibiting molecules. After graduating, Jason joined the IGI in July 2017 as a research associate in the CRISPR screening lab.

Jesse received his B.S. in Horticulture with a specialization in Plant Science and Biotechnology from Delaware Valley University. Jesse joined the IGI in May 2017 as part of the Plant Genomics and Transformation facility. He is currently working on CRISPR-based genome editing in Theobroma cacao and other major crops. Before joining the IGI, Jesse worked at Dupont Pioneer in the Arabidopsis Genetic Discovery group and then in the Glycine max Transformation department.

Mara has a B.S. in Psychology/Pre-Medicine from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Most recently, she led development efforts for the $230M Biomedical Innovation Initiative at Stanford Medicine. She previously raised research and clinical funds for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Mara has been dedicated to IGI fundraising since March 2017.

Meghan earned her B.A. in Biology with a concentration in Molecular Biology from the University of San Diego in May 2017. While studying at USD, she was an undergraduate research scholar working to characterize the expression of the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) in developing zebrafish embryos. Meghan joined the IGI in July 2017 and works in Bruce Conklin’s lab.

Prior to joining the IGI in 2017, Kristy was the administrator to the biosciences deputy director at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and before that served as an administrator at the Joint Bioenergy Institute. She has over 14 years of service with the University of California, including roles at UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering and University Relations. Kristy also has extensive private sector experience, including a key administrative role at Chevron and more than a decade as a senior research technician doing crude oil analysis and evaluation at the Chevron Research and Technology Center.

Julie earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UC Davis with an emphasis in plant biotechnology. She has also worked at LA Biomed and DuPont Pioneer, and has experience with cancer cells, maize, and Arabadopsis. She joined the Plant Genomics and Transformation lab at IGI in January 2017 to improve gene delivery, yield, and resilience traits in commercial crops.

Daniel received his B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology from UC Berkeley, with an emphasis in bioenergy and a minor in Conservation and Resource Studies. While at Berkeley, he conducted research on ovule abortion in plants and photoinhibition in cyanobacteria. Following his graduation in 2017, Daniel joined the Plant Genomics and Transformation lab at IGI. Favorite plant family? Lamiaceae!

Clarice obtained a B.S. in Biology from the University of Sao Paulo and a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, where she studied functional and comparative genomics in plants. She received postdoctoral training in molecular microbiology at the University of Miami Medical School and in plant immunity at UC Berkeley’s Energy Biosciences Institute. She transitioned from laboratory science and research into program administration in early 2017, working in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology prior to joining the IGI in October 2017.

Jackie received her B.S. in Plant Biology from UC Davis. She joined the Plant Genomics and Transformation Lab at IGI in January 2017. Previously, Jackie worked on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of various cereal crops to improve drought tolerance, insect resistance, and yield at both Arcadia Biosciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Lea has a B.A. in Chemistry from Willamette University and received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley working in Robert Tjian’s lab. Her doctoral work focused on mechanisms of human transcription and the influence of chromatin on CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. Lea joined the IGI in September 2017 as a science policy analyst, looking at the regulatory landscape as it relates to new genetic engineering technologies and the role of public perception in biotechnology development and adoption.

Stacia holds a B.A. from Smith College, received her M.S. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas, Austin. Her postdoctoral work involved developing algorithms for identifying miRNAs as cancer biomarkers and analyzing whole genome sequences of tumors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Stacia came to IGI in June of 2017 from Gladstone Institutes, where she worked on identifying modifiers of Parkinson’s Disease through whole genome sequencing of families. At IGI, she works on all thing computational related to CRISPR: editing outcomes, off-target effects, and CRISPR screens.