Spotlight on Carl Martin, Director of Systems Engineering

Spotlight is a series of interviews with DNA Script's employees. Twice a month, learn more about our proud team members. What do they do every day? What challenges do they encounter? What are their perspectives?

This week, we talk to Carl Martin, Director of Systems Engineering in South San Francisco.

What is your background ? What did you do before joining DNA Script? 

I grew up in rural Minnesota, have lived in Tucson, Arizona and, for the last several years, have resided in the Bay Area of Northern California with my wife and two young children. I hold a bachelor’s degree in biology, with a concentration in biochemistry from Carleton College in Minnesota and a master’s degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. 

I’ve had the opportunity to work in academic research, a CLIA test environment and, for most of my career, medical diagnostic and life science product development. Before joining DNA Script, I led the system development of a novel microfluidic device at a laboratory-automation startup. Prior to that, I held a variety of product development leadership and contributor roles at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, in both the sequencing and tissue diagnostics business areas.

I joined DNA Script in November 2019 and am based at the South San Francisco office. From the time I first heard about the company, I was very excited by the idea of being involved with such a revolutionary technology. In addition, I’ve also experienced firsthand a lot of the pain points and development bottlenecks that our technology can address. I feel very engaged and motivated to contribute to getting Enzymatic DNA Synthesis into the market and to imagine the impact it can have! Some of our presentation materials draw a connection between our work in DNA synthesis and the availability of the printing press. I’m sure that Gutenberg didn’t imagine the impact his work would have — I think we are in the same position. What potential will our technology unlock? How big is your imagination?

What is your position and role today?

I am the Director of System Engineering. I lead a team of scientists, hardware engineers and software instrumentation engineers focusing on developing the SYNTAX product portfolio. Since we opened the new site here in the Bay Area last year, we have built out all our initial capabilities in the lab to perform verification and validation activities. The team has already grown so much from the couple of us that first moved into our space in South San Francisco last year. We think our staff will grow quite a bit over the next year and likely over the next few years, and we are already looking for larger spaces to move into. We are always trying to find talented individuals who want to contribute to something great — passionate scientists, engineers, software developers, field support experts and many other specialties!

What does a standard workday entail? 

My team and I get to have a lot of variety! As a group, we are working on all aspects of product development for a novel technology: prototype feasibility, system performance characterization, reagent formulation and robustness, instrument and GUI software implementation and bug fixes and, of course, verification and validation of our product. As this product is maturing, we are branching into preparing a field-support organization and the important documents that are part of that expertise.  

For myself, I spend a lot of my time discussing experimental design and methods to test and improve performance, reviewing and analyzing data, prioritizing the team’s activities and managing the great members of the team. I am very passionate about the interactions between engineering and biochemistry, and it is always motivating to be part of a team identifying new and interesting ideas and solutions. I also get the opportunity to interact with external partners and early adopters of our products, which is probably the most exciting part of my job!

What are future challenges that you anticipate for your position? How would you like to grow? 

As we are heading to external launch, there are a lot of conceivable challenges for novel technologies! However, I think we are doing everything we need to be successful and ensure that the product lives up to its potential and meets our partners’ and customers’ needs. We will soon also be challenged to take on the next round of product development to expand our capabilities even further. 

I am looking forward to continuing to grow with DNA Script as we add more staff to our team and increase our product portfolio and unique offerings for genomics researchers. There are so many applications for our technology, but I am most excited about the potential to accelerate molecular assay development. Imagine freeing scientists to instantly modify their design multiple times during feasibility research or to switch gears into a challenging new disease area at the drop of a hat. There is so much potential!