Training

Graduate Students

My over-arching goal for graduate study is to do some fun science together, and to prepare you for success in your profession of choice.

  1. The most useful skill that you will learn from your PhD is how to lead a project. Our functional metaviromics platform generates many more leads than any one lab can pursue, so every student will have complete ownership of their project(s).

  2. Every student will develop transferable skills; at least one of coding, sequencing, protein biochemistry, imaging, functional screening, tissue culture, etc. before graduating. I would especially encourage every student to learn to code (even if just using AI chatbots).

  3. Every student will focus on developing their scientific writing skills as much as possible. We will adopt a write-as-you-go approach, cataloguing every experiment (whether successful or not).

  4. Experiments with bacteria are quick. We will prioritize fast graduation times for students interested in pursuing industry careers, and attempt multiple projects for students interested in academic postdocs.

  5. Horace Freeland Judson’s “Eighth Day of Creation” is required reading. A copy of the book can be loaned from the lab for the duration of your PhD.

Postdocs

Contact me as soon as possible to discuss potential projects, ideally as soon as you start planning to graduate from your PhD program. We have several projects in the lab that would be suitable for postdocs who intend to launch independent academic careers, and I am always open to new ideas. However, it is imperative that we strategize early to identify projects that justify the time you will invest in your postdoc, and research topics that will put you in a competitive position in an unforgiving and unpredictable job market. A good postdoc project is one that allows you to tell a compelling story, opens up many interesting questions that warrant further investment of your time and your future institution’s space and funds, and one that you take with you in its entirety. We will focus on these aspects and not worry too much about perverse research productivity metrics.

Industry Postdocs

A postdoc ought to be viewed a pre-seed startup; you are doing this to either set up a lab or a company of your own. But there aren't many biotech incubators in Silicon Valley. Instead, there are many tech incubators masquerading as biotech incubators, with timelines that are mostly too short. That leaves the onus of innovation squarely in the academic court.

A postdoc is perhaps the ideal structure to try risky ideas, the equivalent of the tech “garage” (and no, you cannot “biohack” in a literal garage). Especially if you have spent some time in industry already and are contemplating returning to the bench to explore an idea that could form the basis of a startup, I would be happy to discuss a path forward that enables you to achieve your goals and leads to an interesting scientific discovery. While this will necessarily be limited to a small proportion of the lab’s efforts, I will support you with my experience and contacts in biotech and help you find the resources you need to succeed. To start your exploration, check out the UCSF Catalyst program.

Mentorship

Mental Health Awareness

Mental health is perhaps the most important and most critically neglected part of our student-support and broader healthcare system in the US. I will try to support the mental health needs of my students, listen attentively, communicate with honesty, fairness, and respect, strive to build trust as a steward of your careers, and help you find resources that you may not be familiar with, or able to seek out on your own.

I am experimenting with a wholly voluntary, weekly, “How hard am I paddling under the surface” check-in process for members of the lab. Life happens; you don’t have to tell me what’s going on, but knowing how much you are shouldering at any given point can help me be a better mentor to you.

Fairly Distributing Research Rewards

The expected commercial value of most academic projects is zero, but some breakthroughs can result in outsize gains. I want to explore a structure that will distribute rewards of research more fairly and cultivate a sense that we are participating in a long-term shared enterprise for the common good.

Therefore, every experiment that is completed and written up (regardless of whether it succeeded or failed) will earn the lab member an equivalent share/profit interest in a future corporation or LLC that will automatically be a founder of any commercial entity that spins out of our research.

Career Mentorship

Before I started my postdoc at UCSF, I was a founder and chief science officer of BillionToOne Inc., where I developed a technology that uniquely enables detection of single-gene disorders in the fetus and powers one of the most precise cancer liquid biopsy tools on the market. The company was recently valued at >$1B and employs hundreds of scientists and sales professionals.

I am happy to offer 1:1 mentorship to any students or postdocs at Gladstone/UCSF who are navigating the “0 to 1” stage of taking their research forward via the startup route. There are excellent resources on the Catalyst LaunchPad webpage put together by UCSF Innovation Ventures. I am also happy to chat generally about careers in biotech, and issues that arise for immigrant scientists in academia and industry.