BigHat Biosciences

We welcome Sebastian Ober, Fah Sathirapongsasuti and Nicholas Young. Sebastian joins BigHat’s Machine Learning team as Senior Machine Learning Scientist I. Sebastian will focus on improving BigHat’s integration of multimodal experimental data in Bayesian Optimization for antibody design. Sebastian completed his PhD in the Machine Learning Group at the University of Cambridge, where he focused on representing uncertainty in deep learning and active learning. Prior to that, he completed his undergraduate and Masters degree in engineering, also at Cambridge. Before joining BigHat, Sebastian worked at AstraZeneca and Secondmind. Fah joins as BigHat's new Senior Director of Data Science. Fah brings over a decade of biopharma experience, specializing in computational biology for target and drug discovery. At 23andMe’s Therapeutics Division, Fah was a founding scientist and pioneered the use of human genetics for drug target identification and prioritization. He has also led bioinformatics and data science teams as Director of Bioinformatics, Genetic Medicine at MEDGENOME and Director of Computational Biology at Alloy Therapeutics, Inc., focusing on data organization and tool development for next-generation therapeutics. Fah holds a PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University and BS/MS degrees in Mathematical and Computational Science/Computer Science from Stanford University. Nicholas Young joins as Scientist I, to our External Programs. Nick will be performing and developing assays to support our internal and partnered programs. Nicholas is a chemical biologist with an interest in dissecting sequence-function landscapes of proteins. During his graduate work, he developed methods for the high-throughput screening and functional characterization of proteases, small molecules, and antibodies. He earned his PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Francisco, and a BS in Chemistry from the Penn State University. In addition, Nicholas previously worked as a Postbaccalaureate Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and as a Protein Biochemistry Intern at Denali Therapeutics. Welcome to the team, Nicholas, Fah and Sebastian! https://lnkd.in/grt3Vjx9?

BigHat Biosciences is featured in STAT News today’s “Who to Know: 7 companies to watch in AI protein design.” Read more about our work and how we’re advancing the field of next-generation biologics: https://lnkd.in/gV3A-v7T?

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that BigHat is developing a best-in-class ADC that combines our cutting-edge ML-guided antibody design platform with Synaffix BV (“Synaffix”), a Lonza company’s (SWX:LONN) site-specific linker-payload technology. With these next-gen ADCs, we are excited to improve patient outcomes and deliver safer and more effective therapies to patients in need. Learn more about this license agreement and its potential impact: https://lnkd.in/gvMggA2S?

Noelle Huskey Mullin, Principal Scientist, Translational Research at BigHat, will give her invited talk, “Functional and in vivo validation of next generation antibodies designed with a machine learning-driven synthetic biology platform” at the 16th annual Protein and Antibody Engineering Summit (PEGS) Europe, in Barcelona, Spain on November 5, 2024. In this talk, Noelle will explain how BigHat leverages cutting-edge AI and machine learning technologies combined with advanced synthetic biology methods to design safer, more effective antibody therapies for patients suffering from today’s most intractable diseases. https://lnkd.in/gyNdcYJF #PEGSEurope

We welcome Taylor, Richard and Hector! Richard Gavan joins us as a Senior Software Engineer I, Lab Systems. Richard will play a key role in developing innovative software solutions for our Lab Systems team, collaborating across science and engineering to accelerate the design and testing of therapeutic antibodies. Richard Gavan is a software engineer with extensive experience in full-stack development, bioinformatics, and life sciences solutions. Before joining BigHat, he co-founded and served as the CTO at Eucalyptus Bio, where he built the software and IT infrastructure from the ground up, including a CRISPR therapeutic design platform and an NGS analysis pipeline. Previously, as a Solutions Architect at Perficient, he developed systems for clinical data warehousing and analytics. Richard holds an MSc in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology and a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from UC Santa Barbara. His diverse expertise drives innovation at the intersection of software engineering and biotechnology. Taylor Skokan joins us as Scientist I to the translational research team. Taylor will be supporting our internal portfolio of next-gen therapeutic antibody programs, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our mission. Taylor received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. He subsequently completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University and Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. Taylor’s work has centered around regeneration and disorders associated with tissue injury and inflammation, spanning diverse biological systems. Hector Franco joins BigHat as a Senior Research Associate as part of the Display Technologies team. At BigHat, Hector will contribute to our naive discovery efforts and will generate data to help power our machine learning models. Hector Franco is a University of California, Santa Cruz graduate with a diverse and well-rounded background in biotechnology. His expertise spans across multiple disciplines, including CLIA laboratory operations, antibody engineering, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and tissue culture. He has multiple years of phage display experience as he was part of the antibody engineering team at Twist Bioscience and most recently at DEXTERA. Welcome to the team, Taylor, Richard and Hector!

Peyton Greenside, BigHat’s Co-founder & CSO, will be speaking at a16z Bio + Health BUILD 2024 on AI’s role in shaping the future of biology. She will highlight how BigHat leverages cutting-edge AI and machine learning technologies combined with advanced synthetic biology methods to design safer, more effective antibody therapies for patients suffering from today’s most intractable diseases. ?? October 10 | 10:50–11:20 A.M. MT ?? AI’s Next Frontier in Biology ?? Featuring: Vijay Pande, PhD | General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz Edward Chang, MD |?CEO and Co-founder, Echo Neurotechnologies and Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco Peyton Greenside | Co-founder & CSO, BigHat Biosciences https://lnkd.in/ghzTVgXw?

We’re excited to share that Elizabeth Schwarzbach, CBO of BigHat Biosciences, will be participating in a panel at Tough Tech Week 2024, titled Partnering for Speed & Progress in Human Health. In this discussion, Liz will draw on her experience to highlight how partnerships are essential in driving biotech innovation. The panel will explore the vital role of collaborations between startups, venture capital, and large pharmaceutical companies in overcoming challenges such as regulatory hurdles and navigating clinical trials. Liz will be joined by industry leaders Stacy Coen, MBA (CBO, ImmunoGen, Inc.) and Rachel Sha (CEO, Vaxess Technologies) on the panel, which will be moderated by Ann DeWitt, General Partner at Engine Ventures. ?? Panel Discussion: Partnering for Speed & Progress in Human Health ?? October 08 | 2:00 P.M. ET ?? Location: Tough Tech Week 2024 [Boston/Cambridge, MA] https://toughtechweek.xyz/

We’re thrilled to announce that Charbel Eid, VP of Platform at BigHat Biosciences, will be giving an invited talk at the upcoming LRIG Bay Area Chapter event! Charbel will be sharing insights into how BigHat is revolutionizing the development of next-generation antibody therapeutics through AI-guided design. He’ll dive into the power of BigHat’s Milliner? platform, which integrates a cutting-edge, high-speed wet lab with AI/ML to accelerate antibody discovery and optimization. To register: https://lnkd.in/gQhGTHJi #LRIG #BigHatBiosciences #AI #Biotech #AntibodyEngineering

We welcome Diana, Rima and Helena! Diana David joins us as Executive Administrator to BigHat’s Corporate Dev & Ops team. Diana will support BigHat’s Leadership, Business Development, and Recruiting related administrative activities. After over two years of incredible work with us via Persona, we’re thrilled to officially have her on board. She's passionate about growth and learning and is currently pursuing her MBA at Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University. Rima Sanyal joins us as Associate Scientist, Translational Research. Rima will be performing and developing immunological assays to support our internal programs pipeline. Rima has a wealth of experience in immunology, with a background in T cell biology, biochemistry and CAR-T therapy manufacturing. Prior to joining BigHat, she assisted in the discovery and deorphanization of T cell receptors to advance diagnostic and therapeutic efforts for cancer and autoimmune diseases at Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. Rima holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Chapman University. Helena Fu joins us as Research Associate II, Translational Research. At BigHat, Helena will lead various in vitro studies and antibody engineering efforts at BigHat, supporting our internal programs. Helena graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology. Previously she was at Twist Bioscience, where she was involved in antibody discovery efforts. She has experience in kinetics, phage display, and antibody engineering. Welcome to the team, Diana, Helena and Rima! https://lnkd.in/grt3Vjx9

?? A BIG Thank You! Peyton Greenside Summits Kilimanjaro for Sickle Forward! ????? We are thrilled to announce that BigHat’s Cofounder and CSO, Peyton Greenside has successfully completed the Timmerman Traverse, summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro along with 20 other team members to raise funds for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in sub-Saharan Africa! ?? Thanks to your support, we not only reached but exceeded our $50,000 goal, contributing to over $2 million total to bring newborn screening and treatment to those in need. We are also excited to share that BigHat’s work continues with a next-gen antibody for treating and preventing SCD vaso-occlusive crises in preclinical development. Stay tuned for more updates on our program. A huge thank you to all who donated, Luke Timmerman, the Timmerman Report Traverse and Sickle Forward teams for their dedication and leadership in making this effort possible! Thank you again to everyone who supported Peyton and the Timmerman Traverse team! ?#TimmermanTraverse #SickleForward